This book is flawed by the images selected to be in it. The other main weakness is that the book is clearly overpriced. The good news, however, is that the image sizes are large enough to capture the power and majesty of Adams' work. The reproduction quality is superb, as well!
The essay by William Turnage is an excellent discussion of the roles of Thoreau, Muir, and Adams in creating the awareness that has helped us to save and cherish some of what remains of our American wilderness. The artist-turned-conservation leader, Adams' role, is a particularly important function in our society. The artist helps us to experience what we have never seen while the conservation leader takes actions that galvanize the emotions that are evoked by nature and the artist into helpful improvements. When the artist and conservation leader are the same person, there is a combined power and continuity of vision that is irresistible. Thank goodness!
Adams is someone we should all admire for another reason. His nature photography and conservation efforts were hobbies, labors of love. Photography of nature is a field that offered meaningful remuneration only in recent years.
His day job was doing commercial photography. He took pictures of dead people in the Los Angeles morgue as well as of open pit copper mines in Utah.
What we admire about him was what he did on weekends, before and after work, and on vacations. Because he wanted the most remarkable images, this often meant hiking before dawn in difficult winter conditions to remote peaks to get just the right perspective.
Andrea Stillman did a good job of selecting Adams' quotes for her opening remarks. "Photography is a way of telling what you feel about what you see." " . . . [T]he turning out to the light the inner folds of the awareness of the spirit . . ." is what his work is about.
Throughout the book, you will find other quotes about Adams' reflections on the wilderness. They are well selected and add much to your consideration of what his images mean.
Here are some of my favorite photographs as reproduced in this book:
Santa Elena Canyon, Big Bend National Park, Texas, 1947
Monument Valley, Arizona, 1942
Canyon de Chelly National Monument, 1942
Sand Dunes, Sunrise, Death Valley, 1948
Sand Dune, White Sands National Monument, 1942
The White Stump, Sierra Nevada City, 1936
Terraya Creek, Dogwood Rain, Yosemite, 1948
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite, 1944
Half Dome, Winter, from Glacier Point, Yosemite, 1940
Leaves, Mills College, Oakland, California, 1931
Maroon Bells, Near Aspen, Colorado, 1951
Old Faithful (4), Yellowstone, 1942
Mount McKinley and . . . Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska, 1947
After you have finished being refreshed and rejuvenated by these inspiring images, I suggest that you contemplate what the wilderness meant to your grandparents and parents, what it meant to you as a child, what it means to you now, and what it means to your children. If you are like me, you will see that wilderness is rapidly receding as a concept as well as a reality. What are we losing? How can we reverse that loss?
Understand all of Nature's message for us by living in harmony with her!
