Nature Through the Eyes Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams recognized that his talents would best serve to illuminate his fellow man on the beauty of nature and in convincing people to keep some areas untouched for generations to come.

Ansel Adams’ passion about Mother Nature changed the American art world to include nature photography. His work became an important part of the American conservation movement in that it provided a constant reminder of the land that needs to be protected. Due to such widespread interest, the community of Hernandez, New Mexico was eternally immortalized and many people know of its existence and natural beauty. The fact that it was due to his influence that it became a tourist destination site ensured that the land there would endure.

Moonrise, one of his most famous pieces, used expert knowledge on his part in balancing light and dark elements to a tee. Because of this, he was able to garner many faithful students; many of who ended up being nature photographers themselves. This then ended up increasing widespread awareness for the need to conserve nature.

On the behest of then-Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes, Adams was to create photographs of lands under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, for use as prints for decoration of the department's new Interior Museum. The Department of the Interior is a federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. In short, Moonrise was to be put on display and would no doubt be able to be a piece that the department would carefully manage in its jurisdiction.

Adams ‘photographs were incorporated into the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition Service and the US Information Service as a book after he successfully toured the country for seven years. A testament of his decades-long passion and revered as “one of the greatest statements in the history of conservation.'

He was heavily involved in the establishment of the museum and research center known today as the Center for Creative Photography. In life, Adams desired to ensure the protection and maintenance of photographs as well as to make them available for educational purposes. The Ansel Adams Archive at the Center presently includes his fine prints, correspondence, negatives, study prints, and memorabilia.

Adams was often disparaged for not including humans in his photographs and for representing a romanticized wilderness that exists no longer.  Adams is said to have believed in the possibility of humankind living in accord and balance with its environment. The photograph Moonrise represents this very idea.

His photographs were used to strongly petition for necessary legislation by the federal government for the preservation of King Canyon National park. The popularity of his work with landscapes (of which moonrise was a part of) allowed him an audience with president Ronald Reagan to discuss environmental policies.

His appointment by the Sierra Club as a member of the Board of Directors maintained for 37 years, allowed him to display, through his art medium the beauty of nature and showed his passion for the conservancy.