Curator discusses Visualizing the Environment: Ansel Adams and His Legacy

Dr. Steven D. Hoelscher, Faculty Curator for Photography at the Harry Ransom Center, discusses the three sections of the exhibition Visualizing the Environment: Ansel Adams and His Legacy.
Photographs by American landscape photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1984) remain some of the most immediately recognizable environmental images of our time. Visualizing the Environment: Ansel Adams and His Legacy showcases some of these iconic works by Adams alongside those of his predecessors and the generations of artists he influenced and inspired.
Adams put it this way: “The first step toward visualization-and hence toward expressive interpretation-is to become aware of the world around us in terms of the photographic image.”
Adams’s photographs have inspired environmental consciousness in many. But many of those influenced by Adams have chosen to photograph exactly what he left out of his visualizations: our impact on the natural environment.