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Ansel
Adams ' Celebration of
Genius '
ANSEL ADAMS
· his reputation ·
Ansel Adams is among the few photographers in all
the history of photography whose name and work enjoy
worldwide recognition. His stunning landscapes and intimate still
lifes of nature continue to enthrall viewers.
Adams's ability to convey the power and grandeur of nature in
a black-and-white photograph is astounding.
Adams is universally acknowledged as the great master of photography.
Winter Storm ©
Ansel Adams |
· his work ·
Most people come to know his work through widely-published books,
postcards, posters, and calendars. However,
relatively few have actually seen his lushly printed images in
the original. To do so is to see the genius in both his
craft of printing and his artful composition.
Inspired by the 100th anniversary of Adams's birth in 2002, George
Eastman House revisited its extensive collection
of Adams's work, creating a new exhibition of 150 photographs
that reflects Adams's full career.
The exhibition presents work from the 1920s through the 1960s,
created from the collections of George Eastman House, a museum
with which Adams had a close relationship. Featured are many
of Adams's most famous images of the American West such as Moonrise,
Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941; Mount Williamson from Manzanar,
California, ca.1944, and Monolith, the Face of Half Dome,
1927.
This exhibition honours the man and celebrates his genius.
· his words ·
" Millions of men have lived to fight, build palaces and
boundaries, shape destinies and societies;
but the compelling force of all times has been the force of originality
and creation
profoundly affecting the roots of human spirit..." Ansel
Adams
" To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath
the surfaces and record the qualities
of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things..."
Ansel Adams
In 1980 Ansel Adams received the Presidential Medal of Freedom
( The highest honour that can be bestowed on a civilian)
the citation by President Carter read :-
"At one with the power of the American Landscape, and renowned
for the patient skill and
timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been
visionary in his efforts to
preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and
on Earth. Drawn to the beauty
of nature's monument, he is regarded by environmentalists as
a monument himself,
and by photographers as a national institution.
It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America
has been saved for future Americans..."
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