Ansel Adams is celebrated as one of the world’s foremost landscape photographers. This month, the Kemper Art Museum will present “Ansel Adams: Reverence for Life,” an exhibition of photographs showcasing works from the personal collections of the Adams family.
“Reverence for Life” is organized in conjunction with the International Symposium on Energy and Environment, sponsored by the McDonnell International Scholars Academy.
The symposium will bring to campus prominent presidents and leaders from among the Academy’s 20 Partner Universities in Asia and the Middle East. For more information on the symposium, visit eer.wustl.edu.
Speakers at the symposium, which runs May 4-7, include Michael Adams, M.D., Ansel Adams’s son and a 1967 alumnus. Symposium attendees will take a private tour of the exhibition prior to its public opening May 11.
The exhibition includes approximately 60 original gelatin silver prints — many virtually unknown to the general public — that were printed by Adams (1902-1984).
The exhibition is guest curated by Jeanne Falk Adams, Michael Adams’ wife. All works are drawn from the collection of Jeanne and Michael Adams, the Virginia Adams Trust and The Ansel Adams Gallery.
“Reverence for Life” is divided into two sections: “Eloquent Light” and “Water.” The exhibition focuses on the role of water — and lack thereof — in shaping the natural landscape.
The arid terrain of the American Southwest is contrasted with lush views of the California coastline as well as lakes and mountain streams ranging from Yellowstone National Park and the Sierra Nevada to Adams’ beloved Yosemite National Park.
Together, these works underscore the importance of the environment to Adams’ work, as well as the ways in which his photographs continue to raise awareness of pressing environmental issues such as water scarcity.
Also on view will be images of Adams at work and a 1944 portrait of Alfred Stieglitz, an early mentor to Adams.
In addition, the exhibition will feature a short film that includes never-before-seen interview outtakes from the oral history “Conversations with Ansel Adams,” as well as rare 1927 footage — shot by Virginia Best, then Adams’ fiancée — showing Adams scaling Half Dome in Yosemite on the way to making what would become one of his pivotal images, “Monolith, the Face of Half Dome.”
“Ansel Adams: Reverence for Life” opens with a public reception from 6-9 p.m. May 11 and remains on view through July 16. The exhibition is free and open to the public.
For more information, call 935-4523 or visit kemperartmuseum.wustl.edu.