Description:

I had the great honor to speak about the legacy of American icon, Ansel Adams with his son Michael, grandson Matthew and internationally known photographer and Ansel’s last darkroom assistant, Alan Ross. We talk about family camping trips, his sense of humor and outlook on life, his passion for nature, photography and conservation and the new book Ansel Adams’ Yosemite: The Special Edition Prints by Little, Brown and Company. (For complete show notes, visit our website.)

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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]