Lucas+Poles





ANSEL ADAMS: A MAN IN LOVE WITH MOTHER

Lucas Poles

Ansel Adams was a hyperactive youth who took up the piano at 13 to calm his nerves. It calmed him and it provided a creative outlet for him which he plugged all his energy into and became very talented at it. It took him many years to realize that the piano was not his life but photography. Adams used his magnificent photographs to inspire people to take a whole different approach to how they viewed the great American landscape. He expressed through photography that which is too hard to express in words: that nature is worth preserving and conserving. Something birthed itself within Adams at fourteen when he ventured to Yosemite National Park, on a family vacation. This experience ignited a flame of wonderment and curiosity that only grew larger and larger over time. Adams recalls: We finally emerged at Valley View – the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it //was// glorious. Little clouds were gathering in the sky above the granite cliffs, and the mists of Bridal Veil Fall shimmered in the sun… One wonder after another after another descended upon us; I recall not only the colossal but the little things: the grasses and ferns, cool atriums of the forest. The river was mostly quiet and greenish-deep; Sentinel Fall and Yosemite Falls were booming in the early summer flood, and many small shining cascades threaded the cliffs. There was light everywhere! (Adams 42) It was there he got his first camera and started to capture everything he saw with a energetic thirst. Later Adams came down with the flu. Upon recovery he thought it would be best to go to Yosemite to recover and he did. He went from barely being able to walk to covering peaks in no time. He exclaimed “Yosemite had cured me!” (Adams 44). His many misadventures spent with pure nature led him to find nothing more wonderful than to breathe and live Yosemite. “I continued to treasure my solitary excursions into the Sierra, they gave me many unforgettable days and nights and constant opportunities for photographing.” (Adams 52). It seems the two were made for each other; it was where Adams found his worth; he says “I //knew// my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite.” (Adams 54) In Yosemite Adams was allowed to grow into a man, and when not working at a photo developing shop during the school years, he was taking pictures and working for the Sierra Club at Yosemite as the custodian in the summer. There Adams learned all about Yosemite and the importance of the preservation of the American wilderness. The purpose of the club was: To explore, enjoy and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast; to publish authentic information concerning them; to enlist the support and cooperation of the people and the government in preserving the forests and other natural features of the Sierra Nevada. (Alinder quoted 98)

The club had far reaching influence into the government and through it many National Parks were formed. He worked tirelessly to preserve but was not against human development but rather: The human condition is part of the world’s structure, and a balanced approach to the environment and its significance to humanity is essential… our reason for being is not to destroy civilization but to assist in guiding it to constructive attitudes… I feel that the education of the public of the vast, inclusive problems of the environment will have the most rewarding effects. (Adams 126) He was not an extremist but wanted there to be a balance between humans and nature, much like the Native Americans. He wanted us to enjoy the earth and each other. Adams had high hopes to become a talented piano player, but over time he realized that while he was good at it, he would never make it professionally. At the same time his skills in photography were growing everyday. It was the photograph //Monolith, the Face of Half Dome// that really pushed him to photography. Mary Alinder shares that: //Monolith// is Ansel’s most significant photograph because with this image he broke free from all the photography that had come before… With its extreme manipulation of tonal values it was definitely beyond the dicta of straight photography; this was a new vision, and it was his. (Alinder 60) In //Monolith, the Face of Half Dome// Adams waited for hours to capture the face at that exact moment, carrying this heavy camera equipment up the mountain face to take it. The white ledge on the right and the white rolling hill on the left contrast to make the viewer stop, stare and want to watch snow fall to the ground and count the seconds before it hits the ground. When Adams put all his energy into photography and joined it with his work at the Sierra club, Adams changed America. He was convinced that “he must become the defender of the earth’s continued existence; he must fight to protect it for all those who would follow, and especially for the children who could be cured, as he had been, by the healing power of the wilderness.” (Alinder 96) From that point onward Adams’ life was dedicated to photography and the subjects he studied under that art. These two ideas coupled together allowed him to bring awareness to many just through his photographs. It was his photography after all that changed photographs from being just family portraits to an actual art form that could be displayed in galleries and scrutinized by critics (Alinder 40). It was his wide spread fame and skill in photography that led him to save a massive tract of land, get over 160,000 trees planted with the help Nissan Motor Corporation (Adams 148) and influence countless others to preserve nature for young generations to love and behold. In January 1936 Adams went to Washington to speak on behalf of the Sierra Club. Adams, by this time has served as assistant director of a number of years and was very well known in the club. He was there to plead a case for Kings Canyon, a massive tract of land consisting of 462,901 acres. He wanted to make sure it was preserved and made into a National Park. Adams, in front of Congress, slowly and carefully explained many historical and geographical insights about the canyon such as: the fact that it contained the largest natural remaining Giant Sequoia grove in the entire world. His presentation was energetic, charismatic and loving, but in the end it was his visual message that persuaded Congress. Adams’ photographs allowed them to see that Kings Canyon was not just another big hole in the ground but rather, “It held a rich array of wilderness. Its skies – pure, clean and American- were all given long distance life in Ansel’s crisp prints” (Alinder 106). But it was Harold Ickes the then Secretary of Interior, who had read Adams’ book and was very impressed. He was so moved, that he talked to President Roosevelt and they together became the champions behind saving Kings Canyon. The land became known as Kings Canyon National Park in 1940 to the joy of Adams and all the Sierra club members. It is no wonder that through his photographs and work with the Sierra Club Adams was awarded with the Presidential Medal of Honor by President Jimmy Carter with these words: “At one with the power of the American landscape, and renowned for the patient skill and timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been a visionary in his efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans." (Adams 295) Adams forever lives on through his photos and has inspired millions for wonder and marvel at nature. He has given them something fight for and preserve. Nature. Why did he do it? It was for his love, Nature, he wanted National parks to be set up everywhere and serious measures to be taken so that the land which was mysterious and alluring was not chopped, razed, and built upon so unnecessarily by people who were in the business of making money and never stopped to take a moment and smell the roses or take a walk through Yosemite National Park. And with his pictures he did just that. He met with presidents because of his photos and inspired them to set up many national parks. Thanks to his photographs his legacy lives on and he stills inspires young environmentalists all over America to speak out so that Americans do not have to dream about natural beauty but can actually experience it not only with their own eyes but with all their senses. Nature is worth preserving and making sure that its beauty and majesty is seen by all for generations and generations to come.

References: Adams, Ansel. Ansel Adams: An Autobiography. Boston: Little Brown & Company, 1996. Alinder, Mary S. Ansel Adams: A Biography. Canada: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Ltd. 1996. Bolsinger, Charles L. and Waddell, Karen L. “Area of Old-Growth Forests in California, Oregon, and Washington.” [|United States Forest Service] , Pacific Northwest Research Station, 1993.