“A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in it’s entirety. And the expression of what one feels should be set forth in terms of simple devotion to the medium - a statement of the utmost clarity and perfection possible under the conditions of creation and production”
~Ansel Adams
(1902-1984)
“Ansel Adams was one of the great photographers of this century. He was also one of the best loved spokespersons for the obligations we owe to the natural world. It has been easy to confuse the related but distinct achievements that earned him these twin honors. Although he devoted a lifetime to the cause of wilderness preservation, Adams did not photograph the landscape as a matter of social service but as a form of private worship. It was his own soul that he was trying to save. His great work was done under the stimulus of a profound and mystical experience of the natural world”
~John Szarkowski
(1925 - 2007)
Yosemite for Ansel was a deeply personal place. He had a profound connection to the natural world and a zealot’s desire to protect it from being destroyed by man’s greed. This rare large print is one of his most powerful images. A large snow-covered tree, alone in front of a cluster of other snow-covered trees. A snow-covered mountain is nearly invisible in the background. He may have been trying to save his own soul but in the course of his long and productive career he has certainly helped save many other souls including my own, when we become lost in nature’s beauty and silence.
