ANSEL ADAMS - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 06/28/1961 - HFSID 165293

ANSEL ADAMS
Ansel Adams writes regarding returning a photograph he thought had already been returned!
Typed Letter Signed: "Ansel", 1p, 8x10½. San Francisco, California, 1961 June 28. On his personal letterhead to Nick. In full: "Herr Gott und alle Eengle im Himmel!!!!!  Lousy German, but today I got a package from the engraver containing some prints used in the past for various purposes and THERE was your beautiful picture! Honestly, I thought this had been returned to you through Minor a LONG TIME AGO. Vell, now you got annudder rpint (print!). It's a beauty. I would consider it for the new little book, but it may reproduce too small. On looking at it again it seems too good to bypass - SO I will not send it herewith but will ask your opinion on it. Tell me soon, because I have to go away July 5th to New Mexico for a few weeks. Have been busy but not accomplished much. Intended to write a better answer to your fine last letter-sounds as if you were embarking on a new beam or something on the up-and=up!!! All best to you and you all! As ever in hayste (sic)". 2 corrections in Adams' hand. At lower margin, Adams has written: "White Fence/Nantucket 1958", likely the name of Nick's photograph, and "When are yours and Wes' [illegible]?" and made a vertical line of marks beneath the question mark. One of America's most famed photographers, ANSEL ADAMS (1902-1984) wrote this letter from his family home in San Francisco, where he had lived since 1903. Less than one year later, a pensive Adams would relocate to a magnificently designed new home at Carmel, California, which provided him with a needed change, a stunning ocean view and a more suitable work and exhibit space. In the winter of 1960, only a few months before he sent this letter, Adams had created one of his all-time favorite and most widely recognized photographs, the dramatic Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park. Credited with forging the advent of photography as an accepted form of fine art, the former student of music did not approach the field seriously until 1927. By 1932, he had co-founded the innovative Group f/64, which included noted colleagues Willard Van Dyke, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston. The Group set a new direction for creative photography by promoting it on its own merits rather than as an imitation of other art forms, which had been the accepted practice in those days. Adams published his first book, Making a Photograph (1935), and taught photography at the Art Center School in Los Angeles in 1940. It was there that he developed the instructional technique called the Zone System: a process of predetermining the tonal values of the subject to be photographed that will reproduce in the final print. This system revolutionized the approach to photography for students and professionals. In securing a place for photography as a fine art, Adams directed the world's first collection of photographs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. A fervent conservationist since his youth, he served as a long-time Director of the Sierra Club. Adams' love of nature and passion for photography are emphasized in his books, including My Camera in the National Parks (1950), Photographs of the Southwest (1976) and Ansel Adams, An Autobiography (1985). In 1980, Adams was honored with the National Medal of Freedom, presented by President Jimmy Carter, for his visionary efforts to preserve nature's beauty "both on film and on Earth." Nick was NICK DEAN of Cambridge, Massachusetts, who worked for Polaroid and was a photographer himself. Adams, who had become a consultant for the newly formed Polaroid company in 1949, frequently corresponded with Dean regarding photographic processes. Lightly creased. Fine condition. Framed to an overall size of 32½x21¾.