Ansel Adams

The Early Days
Ansel Adams made his first trip to Yosemite Valley in 1916, when he was 14 years old. When he arrived, his parents presented him with a Box Brownie camera which he used to explore both the small and grandiose aspects of the Valley, creating a visual journal.

Ansel returned to Yosemite Valley in 1921 to serve as the curator of LeConte Memorial Lodge, the Sierra Club building and Yosemite's first visitor center. In this position, he led hikes once a week to different areas of Yosemite Valley. As he became more involved in Yosemite and the Sierra Club, he led backcountry trips, introducing thousands to the brightness of stars in the wilderness and the clearness of high country lakes.

During one excursion, he wrote the following letter to his future wife, Virginia Best:
Any "news" in the ordinary sense would be an insipid blur of thought—I would much rather send you some little hint of mood—something that echoes, though ever so slightly, the primal song of the wilderness—the whisper of silver winds in the lonely forest--the hollow chant of falling waters. —Ansel Adams: Letters and Images

A Concert Pianist?
Ansel spent a good amount of time photographing during his early mountain excursions, but at this time, his prime aspiration was to be a concert pianist. Faced with the dilemma of where to practice, he met Harry Cassie Best, owner of Best's Studio (now The Ansel Adams Gallery). Best allowed him to practice on his Chickering square piano—one of only two pianos in the Valley at the time.

As Ansel says in his autobiography, "I was first attracted to Mr. Best's piano, and soon-there-after, to his seventeen-year-old daughter (Virginia Best)." Virginia and Ansel shared a mutual love of music and Yosemite, and quickly became friends. Seven years of courtship passed before Ansel and Virginia were married in front of the fireplace in Best's Studio on January 2, 1928.

People often told Ansel not to give up his music—that photography could not express the human soul. But in 1927, he hiked to the diving board on the shoulder of Half Dome, carrying a hefty 6.5" x 8.5" view camera, and 12 glass plate negatives. There he photographed Monolith, The Face of Half Dome, now one of his most revered photographs. As he clicked the shutter on his camera, he saw in his mind's eye how the photograph would look as a print. This new-found ability to visualize the finished image as he was recording it on film served as a turning point for Ansel. Soon after, he decided to focus his life around photography.

Yosemite, Home & Business
A year before Ansel and Virginia married, he wrote her:
I want a little studio—acoustically correct, and with wall space for my prints. And a suitable workroom as well....I want my friends about me and green things—and the air of the hills. —Ansel Adams: Letters and Images

His vision came to fruition in 1936, when Harry Cassie Best passed away, leaving Virginia and Ansel his home and studio in Yosemite Valley. "When we opened the studio in the spring of 1937, the first thing we did was to stock it with quality books, photographic supplies, and the finest American Indian Crafts we could find," says Ansel in his autobiography.

For the next three decades, Yosemite served as Ansel and Virginia's home. They reared their two children, Anne and Michael in the small house directly behind the gallery. While Virginia ran Best's Studio in Yosemite, Ansel began earning a living at photography. He split his time between commercial photography in San Francisco and other photographic work in Yosemite.

Yosemite Park and Curry Company and the National Park Service hired him countless times to photograph Yosemite events. Many of the black-and-white photos of skiers and toboggan riders on display at The Ahwahnee were actually taken by Ansel. But his greatest joy came from self-directed assignments, most of which explored the natural world. These images were the first to truly document the ambiance and grandeur of the western landscape.

Photography & Conservation
While they were not made solely for the purpose of protecting the land, these images played an essential role in the conservation movement. His photographs were used by the Sierra Club to promote many of their causes, and were featured in a book the Sierra Club published, The Sierra Nevada and the John Muir Trail. This book directly influenced President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish King's Canyon National Park, protecting yet another part of the sacred Sierra.

As Ansel's love for Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada deepened, he became more determined to protect it. In 1933, he became a chairman on the Sierra Club's Board of Directors, and held that position until 1971.

Ansel and Virginia lived in Yosemite until the 1960s, when they moved to Carmel, California. In 1972 they passed Best's Studio down to their son, Michael, and daughter-in-law, Jeanne Falk Adams. That year, for the sake of clarity, the Adamses renamed Best's Studio to The Ansel Adams Gallery.

Ansel passed away in April of 1984 and Virginia, in January of 2000. Michael and Jeanne own and operate the gallery in Yosemite, as well as The Ansel Adams Gallery in the Monterey Peninsula, and the recently renovated Mono Inn at Mono Lake, which includes a gallery and a restaurant. As the oldest family-run business in the National Park system, The Ansel Adams Gallery remains a cultural center for Yosemite. The gallery strives to cultivate an appreciation for art and our natural world through a unique variety of books, handcrafts, American Indian crafts and gifts.

Ansel said, "I hope that my work will encourage self expression in others and stimulate the search for beauty and creative excitement in the great world around us."

2002 marks not only what would have been Ansel Adams’ 100th birthday, but the 100th anniversary of the opening of Best’s Studio. Visit PBS to see information about the April 21st airing of Ansel Adams: a documentary film.