Some people may be more familiar with Ansel Adams’ photographs of Yosemite National Park than the park itself — and for good reason. Those rich, atmospheric black-and-white images are at once expansive and intimate. They’re the reason so many of us fell in love with Yosemite before ever setting foot on the Tioga Road or in Yosemite Valley.

In advance of the October 29th, 2019 publication of Ansel Adams’ Yosemite: The Special Edition Prints by Little, Brown and Company, I had the great opportunity to speak with three men who knew the photographer well: Ansel Adams’ son Michael, his grandson Matthew and internationally known photographer and Ansel’s last darkroom assistant, Alan Ross. We discuss his legacy as a dedicated craftsman and environmentalist and learn more about the man behind the lens.
   
With a career that spans decades and a talent that continues to inspire photographers around the world, it’s difficult to reconcile our image of Ansel Adams with that of a fledgling concert pianist. Music, however, was his focus for much of his early life while photography was relegated to the sidelines. “We have a photograph of him on Wawona Point with his [Kodak] Box Brownie on his knee,” says Michael Adams, son of Ansel and current chairman of The Ansel Adams Gallery board of directors. That picture taken of his father, age 12, on his first trip to Yosemite only hints at his future, however, Years would pass before Ansel finally traded the piano to pursue photography full-time.

The dedication he applied to musicianship eventually served him well in the darkroom and in the field. Ansel himself likened his process to playing scales, taking countless unremarkable images in his lifetime in preparation for getting that next shot just right. “Everything he did was just so completely controlled,” remembers Alan Ross, the photographer’s last darkroom assistant and the man Ansel personally named to be the exclusive printer of the Yosemite Special Edition negatives. “He didn’t want to hit a wrong note. So, the testing is nothing more than playing scales, than practice so that when he did come out and encounter something like Moonrise Hernandez, he could make the photograph...It was the end that was important, not the means.”
    Although Ansel preferred gelatin silver process to other methods of film development, he wasn’t disdainful of new technologies; he employed Polaroid instant cameras and film in some of his later work. Matthew Adams, president of the Ansel Adams Gallery and grandson of the photographer, thinks that his grandfather would have enjoyed today’s digital cameras and smartphone revolution. “He was very enthusiastic about all different kinds of technology and wouldn’t necessarily frown on anything one way or another.” No doubt today’s smaller tech would’ve made earlier expeditions lighter. Michael recalls accompanying his father on backcountry camping trips to Lyell Fork on the Merced River with burros carrying their gear, including Ansel’s crude view cameras and glass slides. Regardless of the challenges, Michael is keenly aware of how special that time was. “I was fortunate to be with him when several of his well-known photographs were taken,” he says.
 
Ansel’s photographs reveal a great deal about his passion for and advocacy on behalf of the environment. This collection of Yosemite images includes the eight special edition prints and a forward by Pete Souza, former Chief Official White House photographer for Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, The book reminds us of Ansel Adams’ genius and our role in protecting the vistas he so masterfully captured.
  Ready to make your own Yosemite memories? Plan your park adventure by listening to previous episodes in this Yosemite series. Our trip report in episode 19.1 will help you navigate crowds and prepare for seasonal challenges. A park naturalist schools us in the Yosemite’s fascinating flora and fauna on episode 19.2. And singing historian Tom Bopp recounts the famous John Muir/Theodore Roosevelt camping trip of 1903 in episode 19.3.
        GUESTS IN THIS EPISODE:
Michael Adams is the son of Ansel Adams, a retired pilot and physician, and the current chairman of The Ansel Adams Gallery board of directors. He is also an advisor to The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson and a council member for the Yosemite Conservancy.

Alan Ross is a master photographer and photographic educator. He was Ansel Adams’ last darkroom assistant and, in 1975, was named by Adams to be the exclusive printer of the Yosemite Special Edition negatives, making each print by hand from the original negatives. Alan’s essay about his mentor and friend appears in the new book.

Matthew Adams is the grandson of Ansel Adams and president of The Ansel Adams Gallery, which has operated out of Yosemite National Park as a family business since 1902.
 
DISCUSSION INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING:

• A son’s perspective on the life of Ansel Adams the father and the career of Ansel Adams the photographer, from camping trips to multiple Guggenheim Fellowships to the cover of Time Magazine [4:32]
• But first, there was the music [7:01]
• Half Dome and the shift from incidental pursuit to professional endeavor [8:45]
• Burros, backpacks, and glass plates were the modern photographer’s gear of choice [10:52]
• Incorporating 35mm film and Polaroid technology into the mix [12:00]
• Michael recalls a favorite Yosemite camping memory with dad at the Lyell fork [13:48]
• Alan shares what it was like to work alongside the jokester/master in the darkroom [15:21]
• Mabel Dodge Luhan’s Santa Fe, NM salons and Paul Strand’s influence on Ansel [17:30]
• More than landscapes [18:25]
• A passion for shining a light on injustices [19:07]
• A book excerpt: How the ordinary paves the way for the extraordinary [19:53]
• Ansel’s classic Moonrise Hernandez image [20:37]
• Math and the zone system, or how to calculate the luminescence of a moonlit scene without an exposure meter [22:49]
• Ansel’s contributions to the art and science of photography [24:08]
• Imogen Cunningham and microwave ovens [25:36]
• Lessons from a life spent in the dark(room) [26:27]
• Signatures and initials [26:57]
• Moonrise Glacier Point, Yosemite Special Edition prints, and the range of Ansel’s work [29:08]
• Alan’s tips for photographers visiting the park today [30:28]
• Michael weighs in on what his grandfather would’ve thought about modern digital photography and smartphones [33:29]
• Ansel’s conservation activities [36:35]
• Where would Ansel have stood on the crowds now flocking to Yosemite, not least because of his photography and John Muir’s writing [37:47]
• The legacy of Ansel’s photography as it relates to conservation and environmental activism [40:20]
• Ansel’s contribution to the first large-format book dedicated to conservation, the Sierra Club’s This is the American Earth [41:55]
• What to see and do at Yosemite National Park, including a visit to the Ansel Adams Gallery, a Happy Isles hike, and a tour of the Yosemite Museum [43:18]
• Camping with dad in the Tioga pass and poking around a ghost town [45:03]
• “He was just grandpa to me”: Ansel’s Presidential Medal of Freedom and his front page obituary in the Los Angeles Times [47:49]
• The unassuming artistic giant listed in the Carmel, CA phone book [48:50]

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