American

Ansel Adams

U.S. 1902-1984
Tenaya Lake 87.0010

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This photograph of Tenaya Lake at Yosemite National Park in California demonstrates Ansel Adams' dedication to representing the natural world, particularly the beauty and vastness of the American West. Adams has been called America's greatest landscape photographer. He trained as a pianist but after a vacation trip to Yosemite he became entranced by the grandeur and stark beauty of the American West. His friendship with photographer Paul Strand, whom he met in 1930, resulted in Adams' dedication to "pure" rather than pictorial photography. For over fifty years Adams was a member of the highly influential Groupf/64 (named after one of the smallest apertures available on a large format camera) and helped to found the photography departments at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and California School of Fine Art. His fascination and expertise with the scientific aspects of photography qualified him to act as a consultant for Polaroid for thirty years.

 

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