OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s difficult to think of any other American photographers that carry the same renown and respect as the great Ansel Adams, and when narrowing the scope to the world of nature and landscape photography, there’s arguably no one that even comes close.
Adams was already a giant in the photography community during his lifetime, and his legacy and unmatched influence have only continued to grow since his death in 1984.
And it’s entirely because of that undeniable renown and influence that when you hear there’s a new retrospective exhibition of Adams’ works touring the country and opening at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, you might think you know exactly what to expect.
But rest assured, the new “Discovering Ansel Adams” – opening Saturday at OKCMOA and running through September – is much more than just another look at the classic, evocative black-and-white landscapes and high-contrast nature captures that propelled him to fame.
The show was organized by Ansel Adams scholar and Chief Curator of the Center for Creative Photography, Dr. Rebecca Senf, to not just provide visitors with another chance to see the remarkable depth of Adams’ work for themselves, but to also get a rare insight into the man behind the camera.
“One of the things that makes this show really special, really distinctive, is that I’m drawing from Ansel Adams’s own collection of photographs and archival items,” Dr. Senf told gathered reporters during a pre-opening media preview of the exhibition. “So this show differs from many others in that my research is really based on Ansel Adams’s early years. I wanted to see if we could understand this early work and how it fit into his career overall.”
It’s that desire to understand the more personal thoughts and processes of Adams himself that makes the show such an intriguing prospect.
With over 100 photos and plenty of personal effects, correspondence, and archival materials, visitors are given a reverent look into Adams’ own life alongside his work, as well as a deep understanding of the contexts in which he was producing his groundbreaking photography.
“I wanted to figure out how does he go from this,” Dr. Senf said, presenting a notably small and immature photograph that Adams took in Yosemite at just 14 years old, “to what we know of him?”
That means guiding guests through a chronological progression of Adams’ work, not only offering the chance to see how his photography grew – both in technical maturity and in the sheer physical size of some of his prints – but also to get a close-up view of his own thoughts and techniques.
Displays throughout the exhibit showcase his unique and sometimes deeply complex development processes as well as his own handwritten or typed correspondence, in some cases openly criticizing his own work and discussing how he hopes to improve.
There are even multiple prints that Adams made over his lifetime of the exact same shots, showing his own evolving skills and his relationship to his own photography.
“Adams is thinking about all of this,” said Dr, Senf. “How is the user going to experience the photograph as he’s making it? And that user experience, that audience experience, is something he thinks about his whole career.”
There may be no more striking example of Adams’ evolving understanding of that experience than the noticeable and dramatic leap in style and technique from his earlier works to his 1940s output, particularly his staggering, famous shots of the National Parks as originally commissioned by the Department of the Interior.
That evolution is exemplified in the exhibit by a large, encased collection of marketing materials that Adams made for Yosemite placed just before entering the gallery showcasing his National Parks work.
“Those older pictures are ‘this is what I see’ and his later ones are ‘this is how it feels to me,’” Dr. Senf explained. “But that’s because he worked for a marketing department in Yosemite for ten years and he was being coached by the marketing department with this idea that you could make a photograph that caused someone to feel something so strongly they would behave differently.”
That’s the kind of unique context and narrative connection that sets this show apart, making it a must-see not only for long-time admirers of Adams’ singular artistic eye, but also for any newcomers or aspiring photographers hoping to learn about the history and evolution of photographic technique and process.
“So many photographers that came after Ansel Adams replicated his style because he so popularized it and then taught it and then so many others adopted it,” said Dr. Senf. “But it really is an aesthetic that he chose.”
With so much of this exhibit built from Dr. Senf’s own years of research– as well as her access to the archives of the Center for Creative Photography, co-founded in 1975 by Adams himself – it’s possible that there has never been a retrospective of Adams’ work that’s quite so in-depth.
And Oklahoma City is the very first place where visitors will be able to view and enjoy the full experience.
“It was at the Cincinnati Art Museum before this, but it was littler there,” said Dr. Senf. “So this is the first time we’ve had the whole show.”
“Discovering Ansel Adams” opens at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art Saturday, June 7th, and runs through September 28th.
For museum admission, operating hours, and more information, visit okcmoa.com
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
