Ansel Adams in Our Time

Looking forward and back, this exhibition of more than 100 works by photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams (1902 - 1984) places him in direct conversation with contemporary artists and the photographers who influenced him. Laid out in seven sections tracing Adams's artistic development, the exhibition features some of his most-loved photographs, including images of Yosemite, San Francisco, and the American Southwest.

Adams' works are shown alongside prints by 19th-century landscape photographers, such as Carleton Watkins and Eadweard Muybridge, as well contemporary artists like Trevor Paglen, Will Wilson, and Catherine Opie. Their work engages anew with the sites and subjects that occupied Adams throughout his life -- from national parks to the use and misuse of natural resources. Adams's legacy continues to inspire and provoke, influencing how we envision the landscape and serving as an urgent call to preserve our environment.

"Ansel Adams is renowned for the formal beauty and technical prowess of his photography, but his work is equally one of advocacy," remarked Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Adams was relentless in his activism for the cause of conservation and wilderness preservation and fully understood the power of images to sway public opinion. Ansel Adams in Our Time is exceptional in underscoring his brilliant legacy in contemporary photography and the critical role that his works and others' before him have played in the safeguarding of our national parks and other public lands."



Image Credit: Bryan Schutmaat (American, born in 1983), Tonopah, NV, Photograph, inkjet print, Gift of Jessie H. Wilkinson--Jessie H. Wilkinson Fund

Last Rotating Image Credit:
Slide 1: Ansel Adams, The Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, 1942. The Lane Collection. © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. Courtesy of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Slide 2: Ansel Adams, Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park, about 1937. Photograph, gelatin silver print. The Lane Collection. © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Slide 3: Ansel Adams, Rain, Yosemite Valley, California, about 1940. Photograph, gelatin silver print. The Lane Collection. © The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston