On photography | To move, to feel, to think and dream | Ansel Adams, 1902-1984

Self-Portrait, Monument Valley, Utah, 1958 / Rondal Partridge: Ansel Adams in the Sierra, 1930s

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”

“Simply look with perceptive eyes at the world about you, and trust your own reactions and convictions.
Ask yourself: Does this subject move me to feel, think and dream?”

“You don’t make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures
you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”

Ansel Adams, 1902-1984

Ansel Adams, Autumn Moon, 1948

“I long for the high places – they are so clean and pure and untouched”

“Photography is an austere and blazing poetry of the real.”

Ansel Adams, 1902-1984

Ansel Adams, Railroad Tracks near Lone Pine

Ansel Adams, Los Angeles, 1967

Ansel Adams, Rails and Jet Trails, Roseville California, 1953 / Ansel Adams, “Storm,” Point Sur, Monterey coast, 1942

“There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”

“A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”

‘To the complaint, ‘There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, ‘
There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.’”

Ansel Adams, 1902-1984

Ansel Adams, Jeffrey Pines, Sentinel Dome, Yosemite National Park, California, 1940

Ansel Adams, Zabriskie Point, Death Valley California, 1942 / Ansel Adams, Poplars, California, 1960

Ansel Adams, Eagle Dance, 1929

“Life is your art. An open, aware heart is your camera. A oneness with your world is your film.
Your bright eyes and easy smile is your museum.”

“I believe the world is incomprehensibly beautiful—
an endless prospect of magic and wonder.”

“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When
images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.”

Ansel Adams, 1902-1984

^ Ansel Adams, Making a Photograph: An Introduction to Photography, 1935

Also:
What Love Is / What Friends Are / What Art Should Be | Ansel Adams, 1937