April 8–July 23, 2023
Beloved for his lush gelatin silver photographs of the national parks, Ansel Adams is a giant of 20th-century photography whose images have become icons of the American wilderness. Opening April 8 at the de Young, Ansel Adams in Our Time brings more than 100 works from this self-described “California photographer” to the site of his very first museum exhibition in 1932, placing him in dialogue with 23 contemporary artists who are engaging anew with the landscapes and environmental issues that inspired Adams. The exhibition is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in partnership with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and enhanced at the de Young by the addition of works from the permanent collection and new interpretive framing exploring Adams’ close connection to his hometown of San Francisco.
“Ansel Adams’ photography is renowned for its formal beauty and technical prowess, but his work is equally one of advocacy,” remarked Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “Adams was a tireless conservationist and wilderness preservationist who fully understood the power of images to sway public opinion. Ansel Adams in Our Time is exceptional in underscoring his brilliant legacy and the critical role that his works and others’ before him have played in safeguarding our national parks and other public lands.”
Instrumental to Adams’ development as a photographer was Yosemite, one of the oldest national parks in the country, which he visited regularly from the age of 14 with his Eastman Kodak Brownie camera in tow. Ansel Adams in Our Time examines the critical role that photography has played in the history of the national parks, with Adams following in the footsteps of predecessors such as Carleton Watkins, whose efforts first secured Yosemite as protected land. A longtime member of the Sierra Club, Adams would go on to perfect the rich detail and tonal range of his landscapes in service of what he called the “spiritual-emotional” aspects of parks and wilderness, conveying their restorative power to as wide an audience as possible. Presenting President Gerald Ford with a print of Yosemite: Clearing Winter Storm (ca. 1937) in 1975, Adams urged, “Now, Mr. President, every time you look at this picture, I want you to remember your obligation to the national parks.”
At the de Young, the exhibition delves further into the artist’s Bay Area connections with new interpretive framing and works from the Fine Arts Museums’ permanent collection. Adams became a truly modernist photographer in San Francisco in the 1920s and 1930s, experimenting with the large-format camera that would yield the maximum depth of field and razor-sharp detail that are today considered his signature. He was a tireless champion of photography as a legitimate form of fine art. From his pristine Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras (1927), a landmark work in 20th-century photography, to images of oil derricks, ghost towns, drought conditions, and the sand dunes of Death Valley, Ansel Adams in Our Time spans the scope of the artist’s nearly seven-decade career and efforts to establish both environmental stewardship as a pillar of civic life and the photographic medium as a widely accepted art form.
Images
https://www.famsf.org/press-room/ansel-adams-our-time-brings-iconic-artist-home-san-francisco
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984) The Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1942 The Lane Collection. © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984) Marin Hills from Lincoln Park, San Francisco, Negative date: 1952 Photograph, gelatin silver print The Lane Collection © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984) Grass and Reflections, Lyell Fork of the Merced River, Yosemite National Park, about 1943 Photograph, gelatin silver print The Lane Collection © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
InfoAnsel Adams (American, 1902–1984) Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, about 1937 Photograph, gelatin silver print The Lane Collection © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984)
Rain, Yosemite Valley, California, about 1940 Photograph, gelatin silver print The Lane Collection © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston