I’ve always admired the photographic works of legendary photographer Ansel Adams. Today is the 104th anniversary of his birthday.
From WikiPedia:
Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer, known for his black and white photographs of the California’s Yosemite Valley.
Left: Half Dome and Merced River, Winter (Yosemite Valley) by Ansel Adams – Credit Ansel Adams Gallery
Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California in an upper-class family. When he was four, he was tossed face-first into a garden wall in an aftershock from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, breaking his nose. His nose was never repaired and appeared crooked for his entire life.
He became interested in photography when his Aunt Mary gave him a copy of “In the Heart of the Sierras” while he was sick as a child. The photographs in the book by George Fiske piqued his interest enough to persuade his parents to vacation in Yosemite National Park in 1916, where he was given a camera as a gift.
Adams disliked the uniformity of the education system and left school in 1915 to educate himself. He originally trained himself as a pianist, but Yosemite and the camera diverted his interest toward photography. He later met his future wife, Virginia Best, in Yosemite. She was known to be particularly camera shy. Adams long alternated between a career as a concert pianist and one as a photographer.
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