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Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902-April 22, 1984) was an
American photographer born in San Francisco.
Famous for his black & white landscape photographs of the national parks (Yosemite National Park among others), and as an author of numerous books about photography,
including his trilogy of technical instruction manuals (The Camera, The Negative and The Print). He co-founded the photographic
association Group f/64 along with other masters like Edward Weston, Willard Van Dyke, Imogen
Cunningham and others.
He invented the Zone System, a technique that allows
photographers to translate the light they see into specific densities on negatives and paper, thus giving them better control
over finished photographs. Adams also pioneered the idea of 'pre-visualisation', the idea of seeing a completed print and then
working through the steps to build that print.
Adams disliked the uniformity of the education system and left school in 1915 to educate
himself. He originally trained himself as a pianist, but at age fourteen was given a camera as a gift while visiting Yosemite National Park.
During his lifetime he was a member and, later, director of the Sierra
Club, a group dedicated to preserving the natural world's wonders and resources. Adams was an environmentalist, and his
photographs are a record of what many of these national parks were like before human intervention and travel. His work has
promoted many of the goals of the Sierra Club and brought environmental
issues to light.
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I remain committed to the concept of fusion power, as a citizen, and I wish I was in a position to do more about it. July 18,
1983
For environmental reasons, Ansel Adams was an advocate of fusion power
and made photographs of fusion labs. Adams died before the photographs could be published but left his negatives to the Ansel
Adams Archive at the Center for Creative ---over 3,000 exhibition prints and a complete research collection of the artist's
negatives and other original material.
Publishing rights are handled by the trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.
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