Ansel Adams: Eye-Opening Talent

Anyone who professes to love photography has surely heard of Ansel Adams, an American photographer who was best known for his black-and-white photos, specifically of the West. He started out as an environmentalist and a member of th Sierra Club, a group dedicated to the preservation of nature and the world's resources. It was during this time that he realized his photographic talent could be put to good use. He started out using his photography to open people's eyes to the natural beauty around them, and during World War II was responsible for creating enormous photograph murals for the government.

While he lived penniless at times and had a wild list of those seeking his talents, Adams stayed true to his love of nature photography, even as he was required to do many commercial gigs to keep his head above water. He favored unaltered photographs (which were not the fashion in the 1920s as he was growing up) and was a fan of the photographer Paul Strand, who focused on photographic 'purity' and attained this through clear lenses rather than photomanipulation.

Despite this, Adams was a whiz when it came to the technical aspect of photography, and wrote a series of manuals detailing the various abilities of many cameras. He was known in his later career as a workaholic, sometimes working as many as 18 hours per day without rest. He also was a stellar party-goer and loved to go out and have fun with a crowd of friends.

Among other things, Adams was a vagabond, and his photo essays from all over the United States are exceptional. He died in 1984, but his spirit has lived on ever since in the world of nature and technical photography.

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