Gutes, sauberes Exemplar. - Ansel Adams moved to Yosemite and scaled for all time the topmost peaks of the photographer's art. And here, as in no other book, is Ansel Adams, not simply true to life but alive, living and breathing in these letters that span a lifetime. Here is the voiceprint, the heartbeat, the mindscape of genius, the profound, impetuous, life-loving man, reminding us time and again, with disarming irony, that the written word is often more intimate, more revealing than speech. On page after page he is here, rushing to greet us with a joke or roguish rhyme, sharing the mysteries of his art, and, in defense of endangered wilderness, raising a shout that could crack the vault of heaven. In his early years in Yosemite, Adams formed the habit of writing letters at every opportunity. His correspondence, therefore, virtually provides the full record of his life. Through the years, wherever he went, from the Southwest to Maine to Alaska, he wrote literally thousands of letters and postcards. Among the family, friends, fellow photographers, environmentalists, and politicians with whom he corresponded rank such eminent names as Alfred Stieglitz, Dorothea Lange, Paul Strand, Jimmy Carter, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, Garry Trudeau, and Edward Weston. Including both sides of continuing dialogues with these people and others, this book reveals the growth of the artist and the whole man, as well as the development of the art of photography through the voices of the masters. A companion volume to his best-selling autobiography, Ansel Adams: Letters and Images is illustrated with over ioo of his photographs, from monumental landscapes to family snapshots. This combination of images with the highlights of a lifetime of letter writing creates a compelling portrait of one of the twentieth century's greatest artists and conservationists and one of the most personable and memorable of men. ANSEL ADAMS is one of the great artists of the twentieth century. In a career spanning more than sixty years, he made thousands of photographs, many of which are icons in the history of photography. He has been honored with exhibitions at virtually every major museum in the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, whose Department of Photography he helped found. Adams published dozens of books, both of his photographs and on photographic technique. Among the many awards he received, the last was our nation's highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom. ISBN 0821216910
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