James Baquet

    Ansel Adams (1902-1984) was an American photographer, born in San Francisco just four years before the great earthquake of 1906. Though he was not injured by the initial quake, an aftershock three hours later slammed him face-first into a garden wall, an experience which left him with a crooked nose for the rest of his life. His relationship to nature was to improve greatly in later years.

    He and his father took up the hobby of amateur astronomy, and around age 16 the family took him on his first visit to Yosemite National Park. He received his first camera from his dad to take pictures there, and the next year he started processing film and making prints in a darkroom.

    It seemed for many years that he would become a concert pianist, but in the end, he chose a career as a photographer. At that time photography was not yet considered a “fine art.” He was one of the first to show his photos in a gallery intended for paintings and sculptures.

    He went on to create a method for visualizing the final print before the photo was taken. This “zone system” could only be done through taking careful measurements before making the exposure; adjusting the development of the film accordingly; and making the final print carefully. The resulting photos — many of them scenes of nature, especially America’s national parks — are things of great beauty, and also highly collectible. One of his prints sold for US$722,500 in 2010!

    In addition to producing his own work, Adams was also a teacher of, and writer on, photography. His father encouraged him to follow the teachings of the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: to be humble and moral, and to take responsibility both for his fellow man and for nature. At 17 he joined the Sierra Club, an organization dedicated to protecting nature. His work has been used in numerous publications to this end. And his philosophy of art — and life — is contained in this statement: “I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate.”

    Vocabulary

    Which word above means:

    1. not straight

    2. imagining, picturing in one’s mind

    3. a smaller earthquake that occurs after the main one

    4. for this reason, 5. thrown (against)

    6. modest, not proud or arrogant

    7. a shaking of the ground

    8. a shorter word meaning “earthquake”

    9. something worth collecting

    10. a place to make photos from film