PERIOD 2
Ansel Adams Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite
National Park, have been widely reproduced on calendars, posters, and books. He was born February 20, 1902. Adams was born in the Western Addition of San
Francisco, California, to distinctly upper-class parents Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray Adams. An only child, he was named after his uncle Ansel Easton.
His mother’s family came from Baltimore, where his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business but lost his wealth investing in failed mining and real estate ventures in Nevada.
On January 2, 1928 Ansel and Virginia Best get married at Yosemite. Two years later they build a home next to his parents’ house in San Francisco. Adams worked as a commercial photographer. In 1933 Ansel and Virginia’s son, Michael
Adams is born. Then 3 years later their daughter Anne Adams was born.
In 1927, Adams produced his first portfolio, “
Parmelian Prints of the High
Sierras
”,
in his new style, which included his famous image
Monolith (the Face of
Half Dome) taken with his Korona view camera using glass plates and a dark red filter (to heighten the tonal contrasts). Adams's first portfolio was a success
(earning nearly $3,900) and soon he received commercial assignments to photograph the wealthy patrons who bought his portfolio.
Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's