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| Ansel Adams stands as one of America's greatest landscape photographers. Born in San Francisco, Adams was trained as a concert pianist. His first photographs were made at the age of 14 using a Kodak Brownie camera during a visit to Yosemite Valley with his parents. This visit strongly influenced the course of Adams' life. By age 30, he had changed his path and chosen a career in photography. Adams' photographs are elegantly composed and technically flawless. Ansel Adams proved a tireless investigation of the methods of photography, pioneering a method called The Zone System, a technique which allows photographers to translate the light they see into specific densities on negatives and paper, thus giving better control over finished images. Throughout his career, Ansel Adams became well known for the clarity of his instruction and his hands-on workshop approach to the medium. Ansel Adams advocated the role of photography as a fine art, inspiring new ways of seeing and communicating. He influenced generations of photographers though his teaching, practice, and publishing endeavors, and has gained standing as one of America's best-known photographer. Alfred Stieglitz, An American Place was taken on one of Ansel Adams' various trips to New York City in the 1930's. Ansel Adams had recently been given a Zeiss Contax 35mm camera, one of the finest at the time. This new 35mm camera was refined, sensibly designed, and a wondrous new tool that provided much excitement for the photographer. Upon seeing the camera, Alfred Stieglitz remarked to Ansel Adams, “If I had a camera like that I could close this place up and be out on the streets of the city…I guess it's too late for me. I leave the job to you young people.” An American Place, captures Alfred Stieglitz, another American-born photographer and friend of Ansel Adams, who was also known for his marriage to painter Georgia O'Keeffe. Stieglitz sits in a contemplative manner at his desk, almost meditative in the process of thought and writing surrounded by paintings and photographs. An American Place, was also the name of Stieglitz's gallery, emphasizing his dedication to American art.  (For Grades 6-8) How does Adams successfully use framing and composition in this photograph? How does this photograph tell us about the subject, Alfred Stieglitz? What does it not tell us about him? |
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Ansel Easton Adams American, 1902-1984 Alfred Stieglitz, An American Place Gelatin Silver Print, ca. 1937 Collection Museum of Photographic Arts Gift of Joseph Isaacson 1993.013.009 © Trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust |
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