Ansel Adams (1902-1984), photographer, musician, naturalist, explorer, critic, and teacher, was a giant in the field of
landscape photography. In his images of the unspoiled Western landscape, he strove to capture the sublime: the
transcendentalist concept that nature can generate the experience of awe for the viewer. Many viewers are familiar with
the heroic, high-contrast prints on high-gloss paper that Adams made to order beginning in the 1970s; much less well
known are the intimate prints that the artist crafted earlier in his career. This exhibition focuses on these masterful small
prints from the 1920s into the 1950s. During this time period, Adams's printing style changed dramatically. The
painterly, soft-focus, warm-toned style of the Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras from the 1920s evolved into the
sharp-focus style of the f/64 school of photography that Adams co-founded in the 1930s with Edward Weston and
Imogen Cunningham. After World War II, Adams opted for a cooler, higher-contrast look for his prints. Throughout the
various styles in which he chose to work, Adams explored the power of nature and succeeded in establishing landscape
photography as a legitimate form of modern art.
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