Art, Activism and Ansel Adams

A new film examines the renowned photographer's enduring legacy
Edited by Mary Eileen O'Connor

Ansel Adams The celebration of Earth Day each April 22 marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. But Earth Day did not spring into being overnight.

The groundwork for strong, institutionalized environmentalism in America had been laid decades earlier by pioneers from many walks of life -- including artists like photographer Ansel Adams. Adams' unique fusion of art and activism is a major part of the story told by filmmaker Ric Burns in the new American Experience documentary "Ansel Adams," airing Sunday, April 21 at 9 p.m. on WHYY TV12.

Until the end of the 19th century, few Americans paid much attention to the health of the environment. That began to change when the westward expansion of America's frontier met the Pacific, and many began to fear that the wilderness that defined the American identity was vanishing.

Growing up in the splendor of San Francisco, Ansel Adams was already attuned to the beauty of the American West when, as a boy, he read J. M. Hutchings' In the Heart of the Sierras. The book led him -- with his first camera -- to Yosemite Park.

And the rest is photographic history. From the beginning, Adams' work was intricately bound up in the beauty of nature. The mountains of Yosemite inspired him as an artist, and he would be powerfully drawn to them for the rest of his life.

In 1936, he went to Washington, D.C. as a lobbyist, spearheading the Sierra Club's campaign to establish a national park in the Kings River Canyon near Yosemite. While Adams was clearly an intelligent, passionate and articulate speaker, nothing spoke more persuasively than his photographs. His book, Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail, widely recognized as a masterpiece, was especially influential.

In the documentary, William A. Turnage, Adams' longtime friend, business manager and trustee of the Ansel Adams Trust recalls, "He sent a copy [of his book] to Harold Ickes, the Secretary of the Interior, who was a great fan of his. And Ickes took it over to President Roosevelt and used it to persuade Roosevelt to support King's Canyon as a national park. And Roosevelt liked it so much he insisted on keeping it."

On March 4,1940, Roosevelt signed into law a bill officially incorporating King's Canyon into the National Park System. For Adams, art and politics had come together -- and both had triumphed.

The synergy between art and activism continued to grow throughout Adams' career. His 1960 book This is the American Earth, a collaboration with his friend Nancy Newhall, has been called "one of the most powerful statements the environmental movement has ever produced." Some feel that This is the American Earth was perhaps second only to Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (published the same year) in launching the popular environmental movement in America.

In his later years, Adams redoubled his efforts to raise awareness for the environment through teaching, lecturing and photography. But he also remained politically involved, personally lobbying Presidents Ford, Carter and Reagan to respect and conserve the environment.

In 1980, President Carter awarded Adams the country's highest honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Six months after his death in 1984, Adams was honored with the greatest testament to his work when the United States Congress set aside an immense tract of wild land southeast of Yosemite, naming it the Ansel Adams Wilderness. A year later, a remote peak in the very heart of the High Sierra was officially named Mount Ansel Adams.

American Experience "Ansel Adams" airs Sunday, April 21 at 9 p.m. on WHYY TV12.