Adams

2 Pages 468 Words

Ansel Adams: An American Icon
Ansel Adams was a monumental photographer who set a precedent for those who followed him years after.

I. During the 1920s a type of soft- focus style was extremely popular.
A. Adam’s earlier photographs portrayed this style, as at this time he was just getting started on his photography career.
B. Photos that Adams produced in the 1920s would only cost his fans a small fee of only one dollar.
C. Black and white photography at this time was also not considered an art but Adams soon changed that retrospective.

II. As Ansel was just getting his start during this time he had many accomplishments in years to follow.
A. He was born in San Francisco in 1902 to a wealthy family and dreamed of becoming a concert pianist. His dream soon changed when he was taken on a family trip to Yosemite and experienced the intensity of photography.
B. By 1930 Adams had met Paul Strand who helped him develop his well known crisp photography. Adams self taught himself the zone system which helped him capture fresh pictures through developing a spectrum of 12 shades of black to white.
C. Adams along with Edward Wesson and Imogen Cunningham founded f/64, a group that developed technically flawless pictures. He also assisted in finding the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Arts. As a photomuralist for the Department of Interior during World War II he produced pictures of Japanese American internment camps. Ansel Adams also helped establish the 1st photography academic department at The California School of Fine arts in San Francisco, now known as the San Francisco Art Institute.
D. In 1984 Adams passed away because of a heart failure due to a form of cancer. After his death his name still lived on when the U.S. Congress dedicated an Ansel Adams wilderness center. In Yosemite National Park standing tall, Mount Ansel Adams and now an Ansel Adams center in San Francisco to celebrate his past wo...