specific quantity and quality of light, Adams, with
the help of Fred Archer, developed the Zone System
in the late 1930s. This tool provides the photogra-
pher with a practical, yet scientifically grounded
method implementing the conceptual basis of
Group f/64. It helps to realize the vision by control-
ling exposure, development, and printing, and thus
enabling the photographer to project the wanted
detail, scale, texture, and tone onto the final
image. The Zone System is still used today by pro-
fessional photographers. Each of the 11 zones, ran-
ging from 0 (pure black) to X (pure white)
corresponds to a specific ratio between a subject’s
brightness as measured with a light meter to its
density in the negative and hence to its tone in
the final print. The Zone System became very pop-
ular thanks to Adams’s publications and work-
shops, and soon became the most important form
of printmaking.
At the beginning of World War II, Adams went
to Washington, D.C., working as a photomuralist
for the Department of the Interior. Photographs of
a war-time essay for the cause of interned Japa-
nese-Americans were exhibited at MoMA in 1944
under the titleBorn Free and Equal.During the
next two years, Adams taught photography at
the museum and in 1946 he co-founded one of
the first departments of photography at the Cali-
fornia School of Fine Arts, later known as the
San Francisco Art Institute. In the same year,
he obtained a Guggenheim Fellowship to photo-
graph national park locations and monuments.
The Fellowship was renewed in 1948, and five pro-
ductive years of important and creative photo-
graphic work followed.
Portfolio 1: In Memory of Alfred Stieglitzwas
published in 1948 and in the same year, Adams
started publishing technical volumes in theBasic
Photo Series. In 1950, Portfolio 2: The National
Parks and Monumentswas issued. In 1953, he col-
laborated with Dorothea Lange on a photographic
essay on the Mormons in Utah forLifemagazine
and started a photography workshop in Yosemite
in 1955. HisPortfolio 3: Yosemite Valleywas pub-
lished by the Sierra Club in 1960.
Adams moved to Carmel, California in 1962,
where he played an important role in the foun-
dation of the Friends of Photography, of which
he became president. A year later, the de Young
Museum exhibited a retrospective show of his work
from 1923–1963 and in 1966, Adams was elected a
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences. By the late 1960s, Adams had given up
active photography and dedicated his time to re-
vising theBasic Photo Series, publishing several
books containing his life’s work, as well as pre-
paring prints for numerous exhibitions. Two years
before his death, Adams defined his person-
al photographic credo in a catalogue for his exhi-
bitionThe Unknown Ansel Adamsat The Friends
of Photography:
A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one
feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photo-
graphed, and is, thereby, a true manifestation of what
one feels about life in its entirety. This visual expression
of feeling should be set forth in terms of a simple devo-
tion to the medium. It should be a statement of the
greatest clarity and perfection possible under the condi-
tions of its creation and production.
My approach to photography is based on my belief in
the vigor and values of the world of nature, in aspects of
grandeur and minutiae all about us. I believe in people,
in the simpler aspects of human life, in the relation of
man to nature. I believe man must be free, both in spirit
and society, that he must build strength into himself,
affirming the enormous beauty of the world and acquir-
ing the confidence to see and to express his vision. And
I believe in photography as one means of expressing
this affirmation and of achieving an ultimate happiness
and faith.
(Ansel Adams, 235)
Adams died in 1984 in Carmel. Major collections
of his work are found in the following institutions:
Center for Creative Photography, University of
Arizona, Tucson (archives); San Francisco Mu-
seum of Modern Art; the M.H. de Young Memo-
rial Museum, San Francisco; Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley; MoMA New
York; Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Bib-
liothe`que Nationale, Paris.
There are several films dealing with Adams and
his work:Ansel Adams, Photographer, directed by
David Myers in 1957;Yosemite, Valley of Light,
directed by Tom Thomas in 1957;Photography:
The Incisive Art, five television films directed by
Robert Katz in 1959.
MARCOMERKLISeealso:Bibliothe`que nationale de France; Center
for Creative Photography; Cunningham, Imogen;
Friends of Photography; Group f/64; Modernism;
Museum of Modern Art; Newhall, Beaumont; Stie-
glitz, Alfred; Strand, Paul; Victoria and Albert
Museum; Weston, EdwardBiography
Born in San Francisco, California, 20 February 1902. Tutored
first privately at home, studies piano at San Francisco
Conservatory 1914–1927 and photography with photofin-ADAMS, ANSEL