October Issue 2000
The North Carolina Museum of Art Presents In Praise of Nature: Ansel Adams and Photographers of the American West
Praised as a genius with a camera, he was also a technical master in the darkroom. His name evokes images of dramatic panoramas, jagged mountain peaks, billowing clouds and towering trees. His sympathetic approach to capturing the grandeur and beauty of the outdoors was accentuated by his fervent support of environmental causes, especially the Sierra Club.
For many, the work of Ansel Adams represents the pinnacle of photography, forever reverent in its praise for the wonders of nature. More than 60 of Adams' legendary photographs will highlight the exhibition In Praise of Nature: Ansel Adams and Photographers of the American West, at the North Carolina Museum of Art, in Raleigh. NC, through Jan. 7, 2001.
In Praise of Nature places Adams' work within the broader context of 100 years of photography of the American West, emphasizing nature's profound spiritual influence on Adams and 25 other photographers who are also featured, including Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham. The exhibition comprises more than 130 images by some of America's most important photographers working between 1860 and 1960.
Over the course of his successful 70-year-career, Adams produced more than 40,000 negatives, 10,000 fine prints, 500 international exhibitions and numerous books. In Praise of Nature provides visitors with a broad overview of his career. Images range from well-loved, monumental views of the American West, such as Moonrise, Hernandez, Canyon de Chelly and Winter Sunrise, as well as more intimate and less-often seen photographs of cacti and oaks.
During the 19th century, the American wilderness was seen as the physical expression of the divine, unsullied by civilization. Writers beginning with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau praised the redeeming value of nature while photographers celebrated the glory of the land.
"Western American photography in the 19th century has often been dismissed as tourist images for sedentary Easterners eager for a glimpse of the great frontier," said John Coffey, coordinating curator of the exhibition, chair of the NCMA's curatorial department and curator of American and modern art. "But behind this documentary façade lies a deeper meaning reflecting the ongoing struggle of a fledgling country in search of itself in the midst of transforming into an urban and industrialized society. These photographs address the widening schism between humanity and nature."
Works by 19th-century greats William Henry Jackson, Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge and George Fiske provide the setting for photography's foray into the West. Ranging from documentary photographs commissioned by railroad patrons to photographs depicting the natural wonders of Western North America intended for the mass commercial market, these works support the imperialist view of the land as virgin territory there for the taking.
With the turn of the century, the West was declared "closed" as a frontier. Writers--chief among them John Muir--turned their focus on the West as an endangered wilderness, depicting the beauty of nature threatened by the ever-encroaching civilization. This cry prompted the creation of the National Park system and the conservation movement. The work of 20th-century photographers, including Dorothea Lange, Arthur Rothstein, Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, depicted the West with sensitivity to both its beauty and the stark realities of nature as an omnipresent force.
The exhibition pays special attention to Weston who, despite his often misunderstood abstract-like photographs of natural elements, was akin to Adams in many ways. The style and subject matter of Adams and Weston are compared and contrasted.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the museum at 919/839-6262 or on the web at (www.ncartmuseum.org).
Related Events
The slide program Ansel Adams' Legacy: Masterworks from the
Friends of Photography Collection, produced by the Ansel Adams
Center for Photography, is available for loan to school groups
and other organizations. The Museum is producing another slide
program on additional photographers represented in the exhibition.
For more information, call 919/839-6262, ext. 2144.
The Museum is providing a variety of other educational programs in conjunctions with the exhibition. For more information, call 919839-6262, ext. 2143.
Catalogue
Accompanying the exhibition is a 250-page illustrated catalogue
with essays by Alexander Lee Nyerges, organizing curator of the
exhibition and director of the Dayton Art Institute, and James
R. Guthrie, associate professor of English at Wright State University.
For more information, call the Museum Shop at 919/839-6262, ext.
2153.
Ansel Easton Adams (American, 19021984)
Born in 1902 in San Francisco, Ansel Adams was a musician, a conservationist, a political activist, a teacher and above all a photographer. Arguably one of the most well-recognized and admired photographers of the 20th century, Adams' keen artistic vision and technical proficiency became a foundation for a highly successful 70-year career, which produced more than 40,000 negatives, 10,000 fine prints, 500 international exhibitions and numerous books.
At the age of 14, upon reading J. M. Hutchins' In the Heart of the Sierras, Adams convinced his family to vacation in Yosemite National Park, which he photographed with his first camera, a Kodak #1 Box Brownie. Greatly inspired by the park's natural beauty, Adams would return there nearly every year of his life. Adams' father, with whom he shared an interest in photography, an Emersonian ideal of self-reliance and an intense connection with nature, encouraged Adams to develop his creativity through a non-traditional classroom--the Panama-Pacific International Exposition--where Adams viewed works by Cezanne, Gaugin, Monet, Picasso and Braque. During his youth, Adams also taught himself to play the piano and further developed his musical talent through private lessons.
Upon graduation, Adams worked in a photo-finishing lab and honed his musical and artistic skills. From the beginning, Adams strove for perfection. He would wait hours for the ideal light, and he paid great attention to the composition of his photographs. After enjoying several wilderness trips and becoming the custodian for the Sierra Club's headquarters at Yosemite, Adams studied mountain photography, in particular the contrast between dark and light in winter. While his early photographs were in a soft-focus, Impressionistic style, Adams quickly turned to creating sharp, defined images. He fully believed photography was not objective, but interpretive and artistic, as it boasted so many variables, including composition, lens, filter, light and film. One of Adams' remarkable talents was his ability to visualize all these components and the final product before he created the photograph.
A trip to the Southwest in 1927 proved to be a turning point in Adams' career. There, he became enamored with the region's natural beauty and met photographer Paul Strand, who convinced him photography could truly be a form of artistic expression. In 1930, Adams' portfolio of the Taos Pueblo was published in an edition of 100 books, and he chose a career in photography over music. Returning to San Francisco with his new wife, Virginia Best, Adams grudgingly pursued commercial clients in order to make a living, but remained faithful to his artistic vision of black and white photography. While completing projects for Pacific Gas & Electric, American Telephone & Telegraph, Hills Brothers Coffee and Eastman-Kodak, Adams became an integral part of San Francisco's growing art scene. Along with Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham and other contemporaries, Adams formed Group f/64 to help advance photography as an art form. Named after the smallest aperture possible, which provides the greatest depth of field and maximum sharpness, Group f/64 promoted "pure" photography. Believing photography should not be used to imitate other art forms, they created images in sharp focus on glossy paper. During this time, Adams remained true to nature and conservation as a cause. As a member of the Sierra Club's board of directors, he lobbied Congress to create a new national park in Kings River Canyon, California.
On the East Cost, art photography was gaining a dedicated following in New York City with the assistance of acclaimed photographer Alfred Stieglitz. In 1936, Stieglitz agreed to show Adams' work in his gallery, An American Place, a decision that boosted Adams' confidence in expressing himself through photography. The creation of a photography department at New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1940 affirmed Group f/64's vision and gave the art form growing credibility.
Also in 1940, Adams began teaching photography at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, where he developed the Zone System for producing a technically proficient photograph. The system divides the range of light into 11 different zones, from total black to pure white, with which the photographer can determine and create different tones in a final print based on the subject's range of contrast. Adams thoroughly enjoyed teaching and would continue sharing his knowledge throughout his life.
As World War II escalated, Adams contributed to the war effort by escorting troops in Yosemite Valley, teaching practical photography at Fort Ord and developing top-secret negatives of Japanese military installations. In 1943, he visited the Manzanar War Relocation Camp and documented the strength and courage of imprisoned Japanese-Americans, later published in his book Born Free & Equal. During this time of burden and despair across America, Adams' work embodied an almost heroic quality with images of hope, promise and optimism. As the official photographer of the Mural Project, Adams was commissioned by the U.S. government to document Indian reservations, national parks and other facilities under control of the Interior Department.
After the war, two Guggenheim Fellowships allowed Adams to travel and photograph the West's final frontier: Alaska. Once again, Adams was enraptured with the wild, untamed beauty. In comparison, Yosemite seemed on the verge of becoming overdeveloped and Adams recommitted himself to preservation of America's West. Returning to Yosemite, he held Ansel Adams Workshops every summer from 1955 to 1981, sharing his appreciation of nature and artistic skill with thousands of students. To enhance the image of the park he loved, Best's Studio--where he met his wife, Virginia Best, and which he later operated in Yosemite--offered Yosemite Special Edition Prints as a high-quality alternative to cheap tourist souvenirs. Thousands of 8 x 10-inch prints were sold.
Throughout his life, Adams remained active and committed to his discipline. From the 1960s to his death in 1984, he continued to teach, publish books and arrange exhibitions. In 1966, he spearheaded the formation of The Friends of Photography, a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of creative photography. He personally lobbied presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan to respect and conserve the environment. In his later years, Adams received numerous awards and honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Hasselblad Medal, an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Harvard University, and the French Legion of Merit. Today, his legacy continues through his work and influence on one of the world's newest art forms--photography.
Resources
www.ncartmuseum.org
www.book.uci.edu/AdamsHome.html
www.adamsgallery.com
www.masters-of-photography.com
www.corbis.com/anseladams
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