Auctions in your inbox!

Get notified about the latest local and online auctions.

We value your privacy! Click here to read our policies.

Learn how to bid
  • Add this artist to my Invaluable Auction Search Alerts

Ansel Adams (1902-1984)

Aliases: Ansel Easton Adams

Professions: Photographer

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    ANSEL ADAMS 1902-1984

    ANSEL ADAMS 1902-1984

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    Bridal Veil Fall, Yosemite Valley, 1927

    Bridal Veil Fall, Yosemite Valley, 1927

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958

    Aspens, Northern New Mexico, 1958

  • Click to See Larger Size Click to See Lot Detail
    Tenaya Creek, Dogwood, Rain, Yosemite Valley, 1948

    Tenaya Creek, Dogwood, Rain, Yosemite Valley, 1948

Ansel Adams Biography

(b San Francisco, CA, 20 Feb 1902; d Carmel, CA, 22 April 1984). American photographer. He trained as a musician and supported himself by teaching the piano until 1930. He became involved with photography in 1916 when his parents presented him with a Kodak Box Brownie camera during a summer vacation in Yosemite National Park. In 1917–18 he worked part-time in a photo-finishing business. From 1920 to 1927 he served as custodian of the LeConte Memorial in Yosemite, the Sierra Club’s headquarters. His duties included leading weekly expeditions through the valley and rims, during which he continued to photograph the landscape. He considered his snapshots of Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, taken during the early 1920s, to be a visual diary, the work of an ardent hobbyist. By 1923 he used a 61/2*81/2-inch Korona view camera on his pack trips, and in 1927 he spent an afternoon making one of his most famous images, Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park (Chicago, IL, A. Inst.; see fig.). Adams planned his photograph, waited for the exact sunlight he desired and used a red filter to darken the sky against the monumental cliff. He later referred to this image as his ‘first true visualization’ of the subject, not as it appeared ‘in reality but how it felt to me and how it must appear in the finished print’ (Ansel Adams: An Autobiography , p. 76).

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

Back to the Top

Ansel Adams Related Content

  • Auction Houses

    Genres/Artists

Back to the Top

Ansel Adams Sold at AuctionView all Ansel Adams Sold at Auction

  • Lake Precipice, 'Frozen Lake and Cliffs', Kaweah Gap, Sierra Nevada, 1932, Ansel Adams, Click for value View Details

    Ansel Adams

    Lake Precipice, 'Frozen Lake and Cliffs', Kaweah Gap, Sierra Nevada, 1932

  • Ansel Adams 1902-1984 , 'rose - driftwood' , Ansel Adams, Click for value View Details

    Ansel Adams

    Ansel Adams 1902-1984 , 'rose - driftwood'

  • Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park, California, 1946, Ansel Adams, Click for value View Details

    Ansel Adams

    Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park, California, 1946

  • Vernal Fall, Yosemite Valley, 1948, Ansel Adams, Click for value View Details

    Ansel Adams

    Vernal Fall, Yosemite Valley, 1948

  • Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite Valley, California, 1938, Ansel Adams, Click for value View Details

    Ansel Adams

    Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite Valley, California, 1938

  • Clouds and Hills, Northern California, 1940s, Ansel Adams, Click for value View Details

    Ansel Adams

    Clouds and Hills, Northern California, 1940s

Back to the Top

Need Full Access to Our Artist Database?

Log in or subscribe for access to: artist alerts, price estimate, auction house name, auction title, location & date, and more...

Subscribe Now