Ansel Adams: The John Muir Trail

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1902. His parents were Charles Hitchcock Adams and Olive Bray Adams. Ansel was an only child and was born when his mother was forty years old. Growing up, Adams had a pretty bumpy childhood and a hard time fitting in at school. During one of the aftershocks from the April 18, 1906 San Francisco earthquake, Ansel was playing outside when he fell into a brick wall and broke his nose. His crooked nose was a characteristic that physically defined him and definitely did not help with his hard times at school. He grew up naturally shy and did not do very well in his classes. Later in life, people thought there was a high possibility that he was hyperactive and dyslexic. He attended …show more content…
In 1922, some of his photographs were showcased in the club’s Bulletin. Six years later in 1928, he had his first exhibition exclusively of himself at the club’s headquarters in San Francisco. He became known as a fighter and an artist of Yosemite. Adams was a member of the Sierra Club for 37 years. During this time, Adams and the rest of the club attempted to establish the Kings Canyon National Park. To help with their efforts, Adams wrote a special-edition book called Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail. This book influenced many people including President Franklin Roosevelt about the idea of Kings Canyon Park. Thanks to Adams, the national park was created shortly after the book was …show more content…
During one afternoon, Adams climbed a mountain in Yosemite to take photographs of the face of the Half Dome. On that day, Ansel Adams created his first visualized photograph called Monolith, the Face of Half Dome. This photograph is considered by many people to be one of Ansel Adams’s best images. “Visualization” was a term that Adams often used and what he thought to be the key to a perfect photograph. Visualization is being able to “see” a photograph in your mind and then expressing that image with your work. Right after he took the photograph of the Half Dome, he already knew it would be something special. That same year, Adams took his first trip to New Mexico to take photographs with Albert Bender. Ansel created another portfolio that included just 12 photographs that he took in New Mexico, which all 108 copies of the portfolio sold out very quickly. Many of Adams’s most famous photographs were taken on this trip to New