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  • Black and white photograph depicting a landscape with oddly shaped pine tree, boulders, and mountains in the background.
    Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Jeffrey Pine, 1945; Yosemite Special Edition Print ca. 1970. Gelatin silver print, 17.9 x 23 cm (image). Harry Ransom Center, Photography Collection, gift of Stephen and Joyce Latimer Hunt, 2015:0036:0007. © Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust
  • Rolling field with trees clouded in fog.
    Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Clearing Storm, Sonoma County Hills, California, 1951; printed 1963. Gelatin silver print, edition 233/260, 22.6 x 29.2 cm (image). Harry Ransom Center, Gernsheim Collection, purchase addition, 975:0031:0007. © Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust
  • Bright moon shining down on a sheer rock cliff.
    Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984), Moon and Half Dome, 1960; Yosemite Special Edition Print ca. 1970. Gelatin silver print, 25 x 19 cm (image). Harry Ransom Center, Photography Collection, gift of Stephen and Joyce Latimer Hunt, 2015:0036:0012. © Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust
  • Color photograph of woman looking out at a picturesque mountain landscape.
    Roger Minick (American, b. 1944), Woman at Inspiration Point, from the series Sightseer, 1980; printed 2019. Inkjet print, 55.7 x 55.8 cm (image). Harry Ransom Center, Photography Collection, purchase, 2023:0013:0019. © Roger Minick
  • Stereograph image of a person looking out from an overlook at a river down below.
    H. B. Hillyer (American, 1835–1903), Looking up the Colorado River from Top of Mt. Bonnell, ca. 1885. Albumen prints (stereograph), 8.6 x 17.5 cm. Harry Ransom Center, Photography Collection, purchase, 981:0025:0001.
  • Black and white photograph depicting a landscape with oddly shaped pine tree, boulders, and mountains in the background.
  • Rolling field with trees clouded in fog.
  • Bright moon shining down on a sheer rock cliff.
  • Color photograph of woman looking out at a picturesque mountain landscape.
  • Stereograph image of a person looking out from an overlook at a river down below.
Exhibitions Events Plan Your Visit

Visualizing the Environment

Ansel Adams and His Legacy

August 31, 2024 – February 2, 2025

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.

This exhibition was curated by Dr. Steven D. Hoelscher, Faculty Curator for Photography, Harry Ransom Center, and Stiles Professor of American Studies and Geography.

  • GIS Exhibition Companion

    When Ansel Adams and his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors photographed the environment, they were thinking about landscapes not only as geographic spaces but also as visual variables—forms that could be manipulated within the picture plane to produce a compelling image. But the extent to which photographs are “visualizations” can be difficult to conceptualize without some point of comparison. An online companion to this exhibition uses Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping techniques to illustrate these relationships.

    Letter

    Combining draped satellite images with three-dimensional topographical data, GIS programs create an approximation of the landscape as seen from a certain point of view. When placed side-by-side with an image from this exhibition, we can see not only how the environment may have changed through time, but also how each artist may have manipulated their naked-eye view through the photographic medium.

    Photograph

    We have sought to connect each photograph in our exhibition with a precise location, but in some cases, we had to make an estimation using historical documents and records. Each geomarker is accompanied by a digital reproduction of the exhibition image, information about the image, and in some cases, an audio file. Images whose locations are less precise are noted in this section.

    Explore the GIS Exhibition Companion

This exhibition is generously supported by

Still Water Foundation

National Endowment for the Humanities

Austin PBS

The Ransom Center appreciates the generosity of our promotional partners: The Austin Chronicle and KUT 90.5 & KUTX 98.9

Any views, findings, recommendations or conclusions expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.