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From December 8, 2018, to February 24, 2019, the Ann and Graham Gund Gallery will be resplendent with images of spectacular western landscapes by legendary photographer Ansel Adams. They will be juxtaposed with prints by several of the 19th-century government survey photographers who greatly influenced Adams, and displayed alongside work by contemporary artists whose modern-day concerns about the environment, land rights, and the use and misuse of natural resources point directly to Adams’ legacy. One of the most acclaimed photographers of the 20th century, Adams captured the landscape of the American West with unrivalled sensitivity and exactitude. His striking black-and-white prints were last on view at the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±ÏÖ³¡Ö±²¥ in a major exhibition in 2005 and this new, even larger presentation will place his work into the context of the 21st century, with all that that implies about the role photography has historically played—and continues to play—in our changing perceptions of the land.

The exhibition also celebrates the recent gift of nearly 500 Ansel Adams prints to the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±ÏÖ³¡Ö±²¥ by Saundra B. Lane, an almost unrivaled number that allowed Karen Haas, Lane Curator of Photographs, to create a show of great breadth and vision. It pivots on themes central to the work of Adams, such as iconic views of Yosemite, national parks, desert and wilderness spaces, Native Americans and the Southwest, and broader issues affecting the environment: logging, mining, drought and fire, booms and busts, development, and urban sprawl.

The eight-gallery installation will highlight major Western expedition photographers, such as Carleton Watkins, Frank Jay Haynes, and Timothy O’Sullivan, who worked with large bulky cameras and glass-plate negatives and set off into the wilderness carrying their equipment on mules. Ansel Adams, whose career spanned the 1920s through the ’70s, will be represented within each gallery by examples of both his most famous and less well-known works, and these will be accompanied by a range of recent work by present-day photographers, including Catherine Opie, Trevor Paglen, Victoria Sambunaris, Mark Klett, and Abelardo Morell, who wrestle with a number of related issues and subjects.

Expect to thoroughly enjoy this wide-ranging and beautiful exhibition this winter and to leave it pondering some deep questions about the many ways that photography has documented our shifting relationship to this seemingly mythic landscape as seen through the lens of Ansel Adams.

Patrons will be invited to learn more about this exhibition on Saturday, January 12, 2019, during an exclusive curatorial lecture with Karen Haas.