Ansel Adams photographed America's national parks before the project was suspended due to World War II

In 1941, Ansel Adams photographed America's national parks for a series of murals that would celebrate the country's natural heritage. Because of the escalation of World War II, the project was suspended after less than a year, but not before Adams had produced these images, which illustrate both his early innovations and the shape of his later, legendary career as America's foremost landscape photographer.

The invitation to photograph the nation's parklands was the perfect assignment for Adams, as it allowed him to express his deepest convictions as artist, conservationist, and citizen. These stunning photographs of the natural geysers and terraces in Yellowstone, the rocks and ravines in the Grand Canyon, the winding rivers and majestic mountains in Glacier and Grand Teton national parks, the mysterious Carlsbad Caverns, the architecture of ancient Indian villages, and many other evocative views of the American West demonstrate the genius of Adams' technical and aesthetic inventiveness.

In these glorious, seminal images we see the inspired reverence for the wilderness that has made Ansel Adams' work an enduring influence on environmentalism as well as art.

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A selection of breathtaking images of the American landscape fills this lavishly produced volume

In 1941 Ansel Adams was hired by the United States Department of the Interior to photograph Americas national parks for a series of murals that would celebrate the countrys natural heritage. Because of the escalation of World War II, the project was suspended after less than a year, but not before Adams had produced this group of breathtaking images, which illustrate both his early innovations and the shape of his later, legendary career as Americas foremost landscape photographer.

The invitation to photograph the nations parklands was the perfect assignment for Adams, as it allowed him to express his deepest convictions as artist, conservationist, and citizen. These stunning photographs of the natural geysers and terraces in Yellowstone, the rocks and ravines in the Grand Canyon, the winding rivers and majestic mountains in Glacier and Grand Teton national parks, the mysterious Carlsbad Caverns, the architecture of ancient Indian villages, and many other evocative views of the American West demonstrate the genius of Adams technical and aesthetic inventiveness.

In these glorious, seminal images we see the inspired reverence for the wilderness that has made Ansel Adams work an enduring influence on the intertwining spirits of art and environmentalism, both so necessary for the preservation of our natural world.

One of the most prolific and highly acclaimed photographers of the twentieth century, Ansel Adams (1902-1984) is the author of more than a dozen books. He helped establish the department of photography at New Yorks Museum of Modern Art and founded The Friends of Photography in Carmel, California, and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. A member of the board of directors of the Sierra Club for thirty-seven years, Adams was instrumental in the growth of the American conservationist movement.

About the Authors;

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) was one of the most prolific and highly acclaimed photographers of the twentieth century, and the author of dozens of publications. He helped establish the department of photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and founded the Friends of Photography in Carmel, California, and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. A member of the board of directors of the Sierra Club for thirty-seven years, Adams was instrumental in the growth of the American conservationist movement.

Alice Gray is a writer and editor based in Louisville, Kentucky. Her work has appeared in such publications as Art & Auction and ARTnews.

The invitation to photograph the nation's parklands was the perfect assignment for Adams, as it allowed him to express his deepest convictions as artist, conservationist, and citizen. These stunning photographs of the natural geysers and terraces in Yellowstone, the rocks and ravines in the Grand Canyon, the winding rivers and majestic mountains in Glacier and Grand Teton national parks, the mysterious Carlsbad Caverns, the architecture of ancient Indian villages, and many other evocative views of the American West demonstrate the genius of Adams' technical and aesthetic inventiveness.

In these glorious, seminal images we see the inspired reverence for the wilderness that has made Ansel Adams' work an enduring influence on environmentalism as well as art.

About the Author:

Ansel Adams (1902–1984) was one of the most prolific and highly acclaimed photographers of the twentieth century, and the author of dozens of publications. He helped establish the department of photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and founded the Friends of Photography in Carmel, California, and the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. A member of the board of directors of the Sierra Club for thirty-seven years, Adams was instrumental in the growth of the American conservationist movement.

For many people images of the major national parks in the US exist in the mind's eye as Ansel Adams photographs.

A dedicated environmentalist as well as a renowned artist, he was one of the 20th century's most ardent champions of the parks system. Through his photos, essays and letter-writing campaigns, he helped create new parks and better protect existing ones. He worked in more than 40 national parks over 50 years - including Shenandoah, the Great Smoky Mountains and Acadia in the East - and his work in the California High Sierra resulted in some of the most indelible images of the natural world ever made with a camera. 50 of the images in this volume have not been published in any authorized Ansel Adams book previously; many more are rarely seen. A substantial essay by photographic critic and historian Richard B. Woodward lays out Adams' significant role in tracing the history of American conservation.

The selection of photographs was made by Andrea G. Stillman, Adams' assistant late in life and a foremost expert on his work. A group of thumbnail images with brief narratives, enlivened by quotations from Adams, appears at the back of the book.

Beautifully reproduced and cleanly presented, the four hundred images in this volume represent the finest work of a pre-eminent landscape photographer. The photographs are arranged chronologically into five major periods in order to convey Adams's maturation as an artist - from his first photographs in 1916 to his last great photograph in 1968.

ANSEL ADAMS' 400 PHOTOGRAPHS is intended as a must-have gift and reference book for anyone who appreciates photography and the allure of the natural world. Few artists or photographers of any era can claim to have produced four hundred images of lasting beauty and significance. It is a testament to Ansel's vision and his prodigious output that a book of this scale can be justified, and it is a point of pride for Little, Brown to publish a comprehensive overview of the work of Ansel Adams in a single well-packaged volume.

Adams began to photograph in colour in the mid-1930s. He did significant personal or 'creative' photography in colour and his distinctive visualisation of a scene and technical mastery is immediately evident in these photographs. Overall, he made nearly 3,500 colour images, but only a small fraction have ever been published.

 Ansel Adam thought seriously about publishing his colour images but the task was not accomplished during his lifetime. The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust - with advice and counsel from John Szarkowski, former Director of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art; David Travis, Curator of Photographs at the Art Institute of Chicago and James Enyeart, former Director of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House--asked the distinguished master photographer Harry Callahan to select the best of Adams' colour work for publication in this book.

ANSEL ADAMS AT 100 was published in conjuction with an outstanding international exhibition that opened in August 2001 at the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco and has travelled to Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and London. This book presents a fresh look at Adams' classic images, an unexpected and sometimes unfamiliar body of his work, offering the first serious effort to reconsider Adams' contribution to the art of photography in half a century. A critical and interpretive essay on this master photographer by John Szarkowski speaks of the importance of Adams as a modern artist.

The book boasts extremely high production values, featuring 110 tritone images printed on a special paper, a linen cloth binding with matching slipcase and a reproduction print (suitable for framing) embossed with the AA seal and inserted in an envelope at the back of the book. Without a doubt, this is the most important and influential book yet published on Ansel Adams.

From 1948 to 1976 Ansel Adams produced seven portfolios, each a limited edition of 10 to 15 signed photographic prints. This book reproduces all 90 of these superb images, including many of Adams's most famous monumental landscape photographs and some remarkable, less familiar portraits and architectural studies. The Portfolios of Ansel Adams was first published in 1977. In 1981 it was decided to take advantage of new printing technology and also to have the book redesigned. In this new printing, the typography from the introductory texts of the original portfolios was faithfully reproduced. In addition, new laser-scanned separations were made of all the images to guarantee the best possible reproduction of the photographs. In his eloquent introduction, John Szarkowski observes that of all Adams publications, his portfolios most clearly represent his personal view of the meaning of his work.