Learning About Ansel Adams
Photography is becoming an increasingly popular form of art
. It has been made a great form of art by great artists such as Ansel Adams.
Ansel Easton Adams was one of the most famous photographers. He was born on February 20, 1902 in the Western Addition of San Francisco, California.
He was born to upper-class wealthy parents named Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray Adams. Ansel was the only child and his parents decided to call him after his uncle Ansel Easton.
His mother's father owned a very successful freight-hauling business. However, he wasted most of it attempting to start a mining operation and various real estate ventures in Nevada.
However, his other grandfather founded and built a prosperous lumber business that he passed on to Ansel's father. When he was young, he lived through the San Francisco earthquake.
He was unhurt during the actual earthquake. However, a later after shock caused him to dive face-first into the garden wall.
The impact broke his nose. His nose was never reset and this was a characteristic that defined him as he became an adult.
As a child, Adams was described as being hyperactive, prone to illness, and a hypochondriac. As a result, he had very few friends, but he seemed to have plenty to do in his family's San Francisco home.
He took to exploring and collecting bugs along Lobos Creek to Baker Beach. His father encouraged his exploration and bought him a three-inch telescope which they used together to study the stars.
In 1907, his father's business stopped being as productive as the past years due to the death of his grandfather and the Panic that occurred this year. Ansel became increasingly restless and inattentive in school and was dismissed from several private schools as a result.
Finally, at age 12 his parents decided to have him homeschooled with private tutors. His father instilled in him the teachings of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Among these teachings were the ideas of living a modest, moral life with a strong awareness of social responsibility. Adams was very close to his father growing up, but became rather distant from his mother as they had differing views of photography.
At age twelve, Adams taught himself the piano. He soon decided to focus on music during his later teenage years.
He discovered that he was blessed with a photographic memory. As a result, he was able to memorize music very quickly.
Learning the piano soon replaced his formal schooling as he pursued it with a passion. The piano became a large part of his life and he pursued it for many years, even though in the end his true love was photography.
Many of the things he learned from playing the piano influenced the way in which he took pictures and wrote books later on. His life changed when he visited Yosemite National Park with his family in 1916.
Adams was amazed by the stunning view. While he was there, his father bought him a small Kodak Brownie box camera.
After that experience, he went back the following year taking with him better cameras and a tripod. During the wintertime, he spent time with a part-time San Francisco photo finisher in the darkroom learning the basic techniques in how to treat photos.
Photography soon became his passion and he constantly read photography magazines, attended meetings and went to various exhibits. He began to take up hiking with a retired geologist in the High Sierras.
He soon came to call this friend "Uncle Frank" and he tried to learn everything he could from him about hiking at high elevation and dealing with poor weather conditions.
In 1928, Ansel Adams met the Best family. He soon began courting and fell in love with their daughter, Virginia.
Virginia's father was an artist who operated a studio. Adams and Virginia inherited this studio, which he continued to operate.
Today the studio is dedicated to the work of Ansel Adams himself. Adams was always known to be a strong advocate of environmentalism and he worked hard to preserve the beauty he saw in the world around him every day.
His wife shared many of his views and supported him in many of his leadership positions in various clubs and organizations. Adams soon decided that he would spend the summer hiking, camping, and photographing.
Then, during the rest of the years he would focus on playing the piano and giving piano lessons. His work is famous throughout the world today and he is known as one of the best photographers of his time.
by: Jack Landry
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