Description:

Adams Ansel 1902 - 1984
Ansel Adams accepts invitation from suburban San Francisco high school photography class the same year The Eloquent Light was published.

1pp TLS on watermarked "Ansel Adams, Route 1, Box 181, Carmel, California, (408) 624-2558" letterhead signed by photographer Ansel Adams as "Ansel Adams" in black ball point pen at page bottom. In this November 19, 1963 letter, Adams thanked the teacher and students of the "Photography Class of Jefferson High School" in Daly City, California for their invitation to visit. Two typographical errors have been corrected with black pen. In near fine condition, with expected paper folds and minor wrinkles, page measuring 8.5" x 11".

Adams wrote: "I was touched by your memorable and multiple invitation [sic] to come and spend an hour or so with you when I am in the area. I Plan to be in San Francisco the week of Dec. 8. The exhibit comes down on the 9th, and I shall be busy for a day or so at that time. I am staying over for a meeting on the 14th and a book-signing session at Newbegins [sic] on the 16th (if the book arrives!!) ... Let me know what would be the best day cordially, Ansel Adams"

To the pupils at Jefferson High School, Ansel Adams had double appeal. He was a local artist, having been born in San Francisco in 1902, but he was also a well-established and nationally recognized commercial and artistic photographer by the early 1960s. His work was legitimated by art galleries like the Kenmore Gallery in Philadelphia, who exhibited Adams's striking and stark landscape photographs during this time. It is likely that "the exhibit" that Adams mentions as closing on December 9, 1963 was located at a similar retail venue in San Francisco. Adams's "book-signing session" could refer to several works published in 1963. These include Adams's fourth portfolio of photographs, "What Majestic Word", Nancy Newhall's biography and retrospective of Adams's work, The Eloquent Light, and a technical manual called "Polaroid Land Photography".

Ansel Adams (1902-1984) had a pronounced artistic temperament, manifesting itself first with music and later with photography. Adams's interest in photographing natural scenery coincided with his joining the environmentalist Sierra Club in the 1920s. Adams was awarded the Sierra Club John Muir award the year that he wrote this letter; a Conservation Science award from the Department of the Interior followed five years later. Although Adams did commercial photography to pay the bills, it was always transcendent views of the natural landscape that captured his imagination and inspired his technical photographic innovations.

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