“We must keep our cool and our dignity and fight like hell!” —A.A. Letter for the ‘Opinion’ Page of the San Jose Mercury News (subsequently reproduced in Knight Ridder Newspapers nationwide). Published April 28, 1981.

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“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” — A.A. Road and Fog, Del Monte Forest, Pebble Beach, California, 1964. Photograph by Ansel Adams.

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“Ansel’s portrait of O’Keeffe and Cox was made at the rim of Canyon de Chelly. ‘I was walking around with my Zeiss Contax,’ he wrote, ‘and I observed O’Keeffe and Orville Cox in breezy conversation standing on a rock slope above me. They were engaged in a bit of banter. The moment was now . . . .’ “In the spring of 1935, Dr. Carl Bauer, the U.S. representative of Carl Zeiss, had presented Ansel with his first 35mm camera, a Zeiss Contax. Filled with enthusiasm for ‘the miraculous instrument’ and excited by the photographic possibilities of the small format, he spent the following summer in the Sierra in what he described as an ‘orgy’ photographing ‘everything from clouds to water-bubbles, people, mules, rocks, and flowers.’ When Ansel showed the 35mm camera to Stieglitz even he was seduced: ‘If I had a camera like that I would close this place up and be out on the streets of the city!’ “That winter Camera Craft magazine published Ansel’s article on 35mm photography with the title ‘My First Ten Weeks with a Contax.’ He wrote, ‘The camera is for life and for people, the swift and intense moments of existence . . . ,’ and his light-hearted photograph of O’Keeffe proves the point. He continued: ‘In general I favor a tripod-mounted view camera for static subjects that invite contemplation.’ ‘This was one special moment requiring the spontaneous capability of my 35mm camera, not the cumbersome and time-consuming setting up of my view camera.’ ‘My main aesthetic objective has been to find the ‘rightness’ of subject in relation to the apparatus; not to imitate the production of larger cameras, but to speak in the specific language of the medium employed, or, rather, in a particular dialect of the language of photography.’” Excerpt from ‘Looking at Ansel Adams’ by Andrea Gray Stillman, published by @littlebrown . 📷1: 35mm proof sheet of images Ansel made at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, in 1937. 📷2: “Georgia O’Keeffe and Orville Cox, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona,” 1937. Photograph by Ansel Adams. Collection Cantor Arts Center, The Capital Group Foundation Photography Collection at Stanford University. @cantorarts

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“With all art expression, when something is seen, it is a vivid experience—sudden, compelling, and inevitable. The visualization is complete—the seemingly instant review of all the mental and imaginative resources called forth by some miracle of the mind-computer that we do not comprehend. For me this resource...is perhaps a summation of total experience and instinct. Nothing modifies or replaces it.” — A.A.⁠ 📷: Frozen Lake and Cliffs, Kaweah Gap, Sierra Nevada, California, 1932. Photograph by Ansel Adams.

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“I am perfectly aware that art, in all forms, is vastly greater than I am. While I may reject most of what I experience in the art world, I feel obligated to do what I am able to do to keep this world going. . . I believe it is the obligation of all creative people to keep creativity moving. It is increasingly clear to me that my art relates more and more to a sublimation of my closeness to the natural world, its events, light itself, and the positive. What I do seems natural and simple to me; to others it may appear as a miraculous performance. It is neither simple nor miraculous; it is a personal expression based on observation and reaction that I am not able to define except in terms of the work itself.” — A.A. ‘Lower Yosemite Fall, Yosemite National Park, California,’ c. 1946. Photograph by Ansel Adams. #waterfallwednesday

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Happy Saturday! What’s cooking now that summer is officially underway? 🍳🤠 📷: Ansel cooking on his tailgate, June 1949, photographed by Cedric Wright.

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Summer’s here! Happy Solstice from the Ansel Adams Trust. 🌞 “Virginia Best and Jane Paxton, Sierra Club Outing,” 1927. Photograph by Ansel Adams.

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🚨Exhibition Alert!🚨 Repost @okcmoa: Thunder Game 6 has us thinking about “Storm, Yosemite Valley” today ⚡. See this work in “Discovering Ansel Adams”! Visit the link in our bio to purchase tickets to the exhibition. — @anseladams @cntrforcreativephoto “Discovering Ansel Adams” is organized by the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, with the support of The Museum Box.

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Ansel Adams being photographed by Arnold Newman, Carmel Highlands, 1976. Photograph by Alan Ross. @alanrossphotography ©️Alan Ross Photography #anseladams #arnoldnewman #alanross #mastersofphotography

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