Who likes Ansel Adams? Who was he as an artist and what made his pictures work?

Question

Does anyone know?

Answer 1

I’m a professional photographer and among others, Adams work inspired me. I have collected a few photos of his work. Ansel Adams was a visionary figure in nature photography and wilderness preservation. He is seen as an environmental folk hero and a symbol of the American West, especially of Yosemite National Park. Adams' dedication to wilderness preservation, his commitment to the Sierra Club, and of course, and his signature black-and-white photographs inspire an appreciation for natural beauty and a strong conservation ethic... Adams was often criticized for not including humans in his photographs and for representing an idealized wilderness that no longer exists. However, it is in large part thanks to Adams that these pristine areas have been protected for years to come…

Answer 2

What is there not to like about Ansel Adams? He is an endearing legend in fine art photography, though his contributions extend far and wide. Aside from being one of the greatest if not the greatest nature photographer he was an early environmentalist and his majestic black and white photos of the American landscape have inspired wilderness conservation in the same way that William H. Jacksons photographs of the American landscape initially inspired the first wave of environmental conservation with the implementation of the US Park systems. Adams was also an inovator of a process of previsualization in photography known as the zone system, one of the prime reasons as to why his photographs look so rich and velvety.

Answer 3

I like Ansel Adams. The rest of your question is the stuff books are written about.

Check out "The Zone System" to find out what he contributed to photographic technique.

Answer 4

Adams, Ansel (Feb. 20 1902 — Apr. 22, 1984), photographer and environmentalist, was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman, and Olive Bray. The grandson of a wealthy timber baron, Adams grew up in a house set amid the sand dunes of the Golden Gate. When Adams was only four, an aftershock of the great earthquake and fire of 1906 threw him to the ground and badly broke his nose, distinctly marking him for life. A year later the family fortune collapsed in the financial panic of 1907, and Adams's father spent the rest of his life doggedly but fruitlessly attempting to recoup.

An only child, Adams was born when his mother was nearly forty. His relatively elderly parents, affluent family history, and the live-in presence of his mother's maiden sister and aged father all combined to create an environment that was decidedly Victorian and both socially and emotionally conservative. Adams's mother spent much of her time brooding and fretting over her husband's inability to restore the Adams fortune, leaving an ambivalent imprint on her son. Charles Adams, on the other hand, deeply and patiently influenced, encouraged, and supported his son.

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Answer 5

Can't tell you about Him as a person. I love his work. His love of nature and His ability to capture it is amazing, just awesome.
As far as what made His work so spectacular in print;

He and Fred Archer are credited with creating the zone system, a technique which 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 visualization (which he often called 'previsualization', though he later acknowledged that term to be a redundancy) of the finished print based upon the measured light values in the scene being photographed.