Ansel Adams was a pioneering landscape photographer
He was born in San Francisco in 1902
Originally, he had wanted to become a piano player and spent his earliest years learning this. He only ended up becoming a photographer after falling in love with a girl in Yosemite who was a photographer.
He is most known for his work with black and white landscapes such as these.
He took these pictures because he hoped to bring awareness to environmental conservation. This was very ahead of his time.
He was contracted by the U.S. Department of the Interior to photographs of nature within the country’s many national parks.
His first ever photos were published in 1921.
Then, he took his very famous photo, Monolith. Monolith is a photo of the Half-Dome at Yosemite looking very mighty and tall.
This photo was taken on a Korona View Camera.
At the time he took the photo, he only had one plate left, so it was very important he got it right.
Later on in his life he was a founder of the magazine Aperture. It is a journal of photography with a serious tone.
Then, in the 1950’s he would start teaching groups how to take better photos at Yosemite. These lessons happen continuously up until 1981.
He then died soon after in 1984, but he didn’t go without leaving a legacy on the photography world.
Ansel Adams transformed photography through his pioneering technical systems, advocacy for the medium as a fine art, and iconic imagery that catalyzed the American conservation movement.
In the Beginning 