American Experience: Ansel Adams - A Documentary Film on AllMovie

When Ansel Adams first visited Yosemite as a teenager with his family in 1916, he brought along a Kodak No. 1 Brownie camera. He later recalled: "I knew my destiny when I first experienced Yosemite." Adams was born in San Francisco in 1902 to a wealthy but eccentric family who lost much of their fortune in the financial panic of 1907. For a number of years, Adams strived to become a concert pianist, but by 1927, he abandoned his musical career for photography. He completed his first major work in the late '20s and gained recognition with the help of Alfred Stieglitz during the 1930s. While social critics accused Adams of failing to record the devastation of the Depression, his work would later be seen as central to the growing conservation movement. Director Ric Burns provides a complete biography of the photographer, but he also illuminates his art by traveling to the places where Adams shot many of his best-known pictures. Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film also coincides with the photographer's 100th birthday.