Ansel ADAMS

Born Ansel Easton Adams on February 20, 1902 in San Francisco, California, Ansel Adams is known for his great black and white photographs of the American West. His landscapes are the result of meticulous work, with a technical precision never equaled by any other photographer of the twentieth century, He trained as a concert pianist before turning to photography in 1930. Along with Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, Adams formed the f/64 group, whose goal was to elevate photography to a high art form at a time when it was still considered a simple form of documentation. A committed environmentalist, he traveled around the country to capture the grandeur of natural sites, including Yosemite National Park. In 1940, he contributed to the development of the photographic department at MoMA in New York and co-organized the inaugural exhibition. His work is exhibited worldwide, and a major retrospective of his work was held at MoMA in 1974. He died on April 22, 1984 in Monterey, California at the age of 82 after helping to shape the future of the photographic form.