Ansel Adams: A Biography - Softcover

Alinder, Mary Street

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0805058354 ISBN 13: 9780805058352

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 1998

Synopsis

In his 1985 autobiography, Ansel Adams presented a life almost as neatly cropped and printed as his magnificent pictures. Here, Mary Street Alinder--who collaborated with Adams on his memoir and was his assistant in later life--is not reticent about the major emotional episodes in Adams's life, including his marriage and extramarital affairs, and his not-altogether-successful fatherhood. She explores the major artistic influences on his work and gives in-depth profiles of the significant figures in his circle. She also explains the technique and style Adams developed to obtain his unique vision, as well as his uneasiness at becoming a commodity. Ansel Adams: A Biography is an intimate and provocative portrait of the world's most famous photographer.

About this title

About the Author

Mary Street Alinder worked for the Ansel Adams Publishing Trust for several years and co-authored Ansel Adams's autobiography, which was published in 1985. She lives in Gualala, California.

From Publishers Weekly

Alinder was Ansel Adams's caretaker, nurse and executive assistant from 1979 until the photographer's death in 1984 at the age of 82. This deeply felt, unauthorized biography provides a much fuller picture of Adams's turbulent personal life than his 1985 autobiography, which Alinder coauthored. Adams traveled often, leaving behind his wife, Virginia Best, and their two children; his numerous affairs and continual neglect drained her patience and love, nearly wrecking their marriage. Growing up in San Francisco, with frequent trips to the Yosemite Valley that he would immortalize in crisp, radiant photographs, Adams witnessed the unhappy, formal, proper marriage of his stern, domineering mother and mild father, who usually addressed each other as "Mrs. Adams" or "Mr. Adams." His adult personal life was often in shambles, and he never found emotional happiness, according to Alinder. After 1949, she writes, Adams, paralyzed by fear of failure, suffered creative burnout and turned increasingly from photography to environmental activism and writing. She also discusses his formative friendships with mentor Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe and with photographers Paul Strand, Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham. Photos.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0805058354
• ISBN 13: 9780805058352
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 512