He stated, 'We all know the tragedy of the dustbowls, the cruel unforgivable erosions of the soil, the depletion of fish or game, and the shrinking of the noble forests. In his autobiography, Adams expressed his concern about Americans' loss of connection to nature in the course of industrialization and the exploitation of the land's natural resources. He helped to stage that department's first photography exhibition, helped found the photography magazine Aperture, and co-founded the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. For his work and his persistent advocacy, which helped expand the National Park system, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.Īdams was a key advisor in establishing the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, an important landmark in securing photography's institutional legitimacy. He was later contracted with the United States Department of the Interior to make photographs of national parks. He developed his early photographic work as a member of the Sierra Club. At age 12, he was given his first camera during his first visit to Yosemite National Park. The resulting clarity and depth of such images characterized his photography.Īdams was a life-long advocate for environmental conservation, and his photographic practice was deeply entwined with this advocacy. He and Fred Archer developed an exacting system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a deeply technical understanding of how tonal range is recorded and developed during exposure, negative development, and printing. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating 'pure' photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West.

Ansel adams photos