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| Ansel Adams was a visionary figure in nature photography and wilderness preservation. He is seen as an environmental folk hero and a symbol of the American West, especially of Yosemite National Park. Adams' dedication to wilderness preservation, his commitment to the Sierra Club, and his signature black-and-white photographs inspire an appreciation for natural beauty and a strong conservation ethic. Adams first visited Yosemite in 1916 and was transfixed by the natural beauty it upheld. In 1919, at age 17, he had his first contact with the Sierra Club when he took a job as custodian of a lodge at the club headquarters in Yosemite National Park. Adams' role in the Sierra Club grew rapidly and the club became vital to his early success as a photographer. His first photographs and writings were published in the Sierra Club Bulletin. Involved politically in the club, Adams suggested proposals for improving parks and wilderness preservation, and soon became known as both an artist and defender of Yosemite. In 1934, Adams was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club, a role he maintained for 37 years. His tenure spanned the years that the club evolved into a powerful national organization that lobbied to create national parks and protect the environment from destructive development projects. Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine, CA, was an image taken 14,444 feet above sea level and about 11,000 feet above a little town called Lone Pine. At the time of making this image, Ansel Adams noted that Lone Pine was in its final days and that much of the remaining homes and rural properties had been bought up by investors from Los Angeles. Lone Pine is also about fifteen miles south of Manzanar, the site of one of World War II’s relocation camps. Ansel Adams once said, “In the early 1900’s the expanding urbanith of Los Angeles sought water and reached more than three hundred miles north to possess it,” and the “glistening bounty of streams flowing from the Sierra was channeled into aqueducts and tunnels to the thirsty southland, and the Owens Valley died a parched and dismal death. Now practically all the water of the area flows to the homes and swimming pools of the City of Angels, and an American tragedy is here for all who care to see.” “I have often thought what a privilege it would be to live and work in this environment, perhaps best before the turn of the century when the efforts of man brought more beauty to the land than now, with out pavements, wires, contrails, and desolation. This photograph suggests a more agreeable past and may remind us that, with a revived dignity and reverence for the earth, more of the world might look like this again.” -Ansel Adams  (For Grades 9-12) How does this image prove to capture the purity of a non-urbanized, unpolluted landscape? After reading Adams’ quote about this image, what do you think about his actions as an artist and an activist? Do you regard this image as more than just a “landscape,” knowing what history lies around it? If not, what do you regard it as? Do you think Adams was successful in conveying to the world what might be lost, or is lost already? Why or why not? |
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Ansel Easton Adams American, 1902-1984 Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada from Lone Pine, CA Gelatin Silver Print, ca. 1944 Collection Museum of Photographic Arts Gift of Weston Gallery, Inc. 1985.036.002 © Trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust |
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