ANSEL ADAMS - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/24/1977 - HFSID 87697

ANSEL ADAMS
Ansel Adams types a letter to his friend Ka Morias to offer suggestions of how to put together a video of workshops conducted by various artists.
Typed Letter Signed: "Ansel Adams", ¾p, 8½x11. Carmel, California, 1977 May 24. On his personal letterhead to Mr. Ka Morais, Santa Cruz, California. In full: "Got your amusing card. I am only a part in the workshop and if the workshop as a whole was video-taped with Jim Enyearat's permission, I suppose I could be included. But I simply do not have the time or the energy to make a 'project' out of it, much as I would like to help you with the idea. I have often found that people in a workshop resent an intrusion by a camera or video crew. And I know I find I cannot properly focus my attention on what the students are doing if I think I am being photographed. My suggestion would be that you talk with Jim Enyeart, and you might be able to get a few moments with each of the instructors in the field and elsewhere and put it together as a sort of edited version of an instructional course. It might be possible to get me making the preliminary talk to the people and perhaps finding me at one location where I was clearly demonstrating a point, which would not exceed 5 or 10 minutes. Other than that, I don't think I can or should do anything more. I hope you can appreciate the situation I am in on this subject. I send you best wishes and hope your work is going well." With original typed envelope. Adams had once described KA MORAIS as a "good friend and a fine artist". For over ten years, Ansel Adams (1902-1984), who is known for his photographs featuring America's natural beauty, was the publicity photographer for the Curry Company, which operates seven hotels in Yosemite National Park. In 1955, Adams initiated yearly photographic educational workshops at Yosemite that continued for 26 years (1955-1981). He moved the workshops to his home in Carmel in 1982, and they continue yearly as an Ansel Adams legacy by The Friends of Photography. At Yosemite, where Adams captured nature on film for over 60 years, he lectured on wilderness conservation and appreciation, as well as visualization in the art of photography. Much of Adams' professional photographic life was spent at Yosemite, where the Ansel Adams Gallery, formerly Best's Studio, is located (a different photographic exhibit is featured each month). Adams published approximately 40 books, including My Camera in National Parks (1950) and Yosemite and the Range of Light (1979). An ardent conservationist, he was a director of the Sierra Club from 1936-1973. He and his wife, Virginia, also had another, more intimate reason for their fondness for Yosemite; they were married there on January 2, 1928. JIM ENYEART, a photographer, educator and scholar, was Director of the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona at the time of this letter (1977-1989). Enyeart, who had previously been Curator of Photography at the University of Kansas (1968-1976), was later Director of the George Eastman House (1989-1995). Lightly creased. Fine condition.