Early Work: Yosemite, Sierra Nevada, and the Canadian Rockies
Early Work: Pueblo Indians
Group f/64
The American Southwest
The National Parks
Late Work
Early Work: Yosemite, Sierra Nevada, and the Canadian Rockies

Adams first visited Yosemite National Park with his family in 1916, bringing with him a Kodak Box Brownie camera that his father had given him. Adams felt an immediate connection to Yosemite and he returned every year.

In 1919, he joined the Sierra Club, an organization dedicated to the preservation of the environment. He worked as a summer custodian at the club’s headquarters in Yosemite. Adams joined club members on their annual hikes, which he documented in essays and pictures for the Sierra Club Bulletin. Adams met his future wife, Virginia Best, in 1921. Her father ran Best’s Studio, a Yosemite concession that sold paintings, gifts, and books.

Adams aspired to be a concert pianist, but, in 1927, was introduced to Albert Bender, a native of San Francisco and patron of the arts, who encouraged him to consider photography rather than music, as a profession. Consequently, Bender produced Adams’ first photographic portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. The publisher of the portfolio made up the name “Parmelian,” thinking that this special term and the elegant presentation case gave Adams’ photographs a certain prestige.



After waiting for the light to fall on Half Dome, Adams had only two negatives left. He used a standard yellow filter for one exposure, but concluded that the resulting image would fall short of his actual experience of the breathtaking view. For the final shot, therefore, he employed a deep red filter and a longer exposure, and this picture was the result.

Ansel Adams, American; Monolith—The Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, from Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras, 1927; gelatin silver print. The Lane Collection. ©2007 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.




Adams made this romantic and soft-focus view of Yosemite when he was only a teenager, which also illustrates an asymmetrical composition.

Ansel Adams, American; Wind, Juniper Tree, Yosemite National Park, ca. 1919; gelatin silver print. The Lane Collection. ©2007 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.


Left corner image: Ansel Adams, American; Eagle Dance, Tesuque Pueblo, New Mexico, 1929; gelatin silver print. The Lane Collection. ©2007 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.