Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West. His studio, which is still owned by the Adams family, is now the “Ansel Adams Gallery”. Adams was born in the Western Addition of San Francisco, California to distinctly upper-class parents Charles and Olive Adams. He was an only child and was named after his uncle Ansel Easton. The Adams family came from New England, having migrated from Northern Ireland in the early 1700s but were not connected with the Presidential Adams family. His grandfather founded and built a prosperous lumber business, which his father later ran, though his father’s natural talents lay more with sciences than with business. Later in life, Adams would condemn that very same industry for cutting down many of the great redwood forests. His mother’s family came from Baltimore and his maternal grandfather had a successful freight-hauling business but...