Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams was born in 1902 in San Francisco and lived until 1984, when he died from heart failure complicated by cancer. From the beginning, his parents wanted their child's many talents to blossom.

He detested the confinement of the classroom and had a lot of negative teacher/pupil interaction. At the age of 12, he demonstrated that he could no longer put up with the tedium of the classroom. His parents, particularly his father, decided that Ansel should no longer have to put up with that tedium, so they had Ansel homeschooled. Ansel learned Greek, the English classics, and much about nature such as the ocean, inlets, and beaches. He also took piano lessons. Music, particularly the piano, could well have been his main career. In fact, after his marriage to Virginia Best, he had to decide between two career choices. These were photography and music. Paul Strand, photographer, influenced him to choose photography.

In 1933, Ansel met Stieglitz, a renowned photographer. Stieglitz had positive impressions of Adams' work and mounted an exhibition of Adams' work in November of 1936. He soon became a partner with Dorothea Lange, a great photographer of the times, who helped Ansel mature in his chosen field. In 1979, he published his successful book on Yosemite. Ansel Adams is known for his beautiful photography of Sierra Nevada, including Yosemite, Sequoia, Mt. Rainier, and Glacier National Park. Among other achievements, he is remembered as an environmentalist and for his black and white photographs.