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| Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer, most known for his black and white photographs of California's Yosemite Valley. A commercial photographer for 30 years, he made visionary photos of western landscapes that were inspired by a boyhood trip to Yosemite. He won three Guggenheim grants to photograph national parks (1944-58). Adams’ perfection for the craft inspired a trilogy of technical instruction manuals. Adams first visited Yosemite in 1916 and was transfixed by the beautiful valley. 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 joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to preserving the world's natural wonders and resources. He remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director, as did his wife, Virginia. Adams was an environmentalist, and his photographs are a record of what many of these national parks were like before human intervention and travel. His work has promoted many of the goals of the Sierra Club and brought environmental issues to light. In 1966, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1980, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. Refugio Beach was taken in California in 1946. The image depicts a clean, unhampered beach scene of boulders, sand, water, and mountains in the background. The beach has a still and serene quality to it, almost as if you can hear the water washing up on the shore.  (For Grades 9-12) What do you think this beach looks like today? Are the beaches you have seen as clean and undeveloped as Refugio Beach looked to Ansel Adams in 1946? What is the main source of pollution on the beaches in your area? What efforts could be made to change the public’s viewpoint and general attitude of the world’s beaches and the cleanliness that they deserve? How does the composition of this image contribute to a general feeling of appreciation and gratitude for the natural environmental landscape and the preservation of it in truest form? |
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Ansel Easton Adams American, 1902-1984 Refugio Beach Silver Gelatin Print, ca. 1946 Collection Museum of Photographic Arts Gift of Joseph Isaacson 1993.013.005 ©Trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust |
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