Ansel Adams At 100 For most of us, it is difficult to imagine black and white photography without thinking of Ansel Adams. Revered for his artistic genious, his scientific methods, and for his passionate conservation efforts, Adams through his prolific body of work has shaped our views not only of photography but also of his most favored subject - the American West itself. Born in 1902 in San Francisco, California, Adams was originally trained as a concert pianist. Although he took his first photographs of Yosemite National Park when he was 14 years of age, it was not until 1930 that he decided on a career in photography. Reacting to the pictorial photography of the time, where soft focus and other techniques were used to create images that resembled paintings or sculptures, Adams, along with other great American photographers such as Edward Weston, pioneered the Formalism movement. Formalism - or "straight" photography - sought to use every part of the photographic process to most accurately portray the essense of the subject being photographed. To that end, Adams invented his revolutionary "Zone System" - a method of exposure and development that provides the photographer with maximum control over the shadows and highlights of his finished product. Throughout his career, Adams photographed US National Parks from Maine to Alaska, co-founded several schools of photography, taught thousands of workshops and seminars, and authored nearly 40 books. It was through his work for the U.S. Department of the Interior photographing America's National Parks for the Mural Project that many of his most celebrated images were crafted and where he gained national recognition. Throughout his life Adams was also a dedicated conservationist, fighting for the protection of public lands and serving on the Sierra Club Board of Trustees for 37 years. In 1980 President Carter bestowed on Adams the nation's highest civilian honor - the Presidential Medal of Freedom - for his "visionary ... efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on Earth. ... It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans." Ansel Adams died in 1984 in Carmel, California. As we celebrate the hundredth year after Ansel Adams' birth, we consider his work in the context of his own words: "I have been asked many times, 'What is a great photograph?' I can answer best by showing a great photograph, not by talking or writing about one. However, as word definitions are required more often than not, I would say this: 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 its entirety."