The grand beauty of the Sierra Nevada mountains fascinated Ansel Adams from the time of he first visited in 1916, when he was just fourteen. He returned to the area year after year, photographing the wild landscape over the span of his long life.
Ansel Adams in Yosemite, a selection of nine images made between 1933 and 1958 of what is now Yosemite National Park, takes over Gallery 321 in the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park (314-721-0072 or
www.slam.org). The prints used in the exhibit are from two portfolios made in the early '60s, when Adams was the acknowledged grand master of landscape photography:
Portfolio III, Yosemite Valley and
Portfolio IV, What Majestic Word. The stark, primal beauty fixed to the page by Adams shaped America's idea of the West: rugged, ferocious and pure.
Ansel Adams in Yosemite is on view from Saturday, June 13, through Sunday, September 13; the museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, and admission is free
IMAGE CREDIT: Ansel Adams, American, 1902–1984; Merced River, cliffs of Cathedral Rocks, autumn, from the portfolio, Portfolio III: Yosemite Valley; 1939, printed 1960; gelatin silver print; image: 7 5/8 x 9 1/16 inches; Collection of David B. Lichtenstein Jr. 2007.218.2 ©2009 The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust
Tuesdays-Sundays. Starts: June 13. Continues through Sept. 13, 2009
