Editing Ansel Adams (section)

====Pure photography====
[[File:Ansel Adams-Half Dome, Apple Orchard, Yosemite.jpg|thumb|An apple orchard at [[Yosemite National Park|Yosemite]]'s [[Half Dome]] (1931)]]
[[File:Ansel Adams - National Archives 79-AA-E23 levels adj.jpg|thumb|alt=A black-and-white close-up photograph of palmate, conifer, and small fern-like leaves overlapping, all visibly damp. One slightly larger and brighter palmate leaf rests in the upper foreground, covering all but one third of the photograph.|Close-up of leaves ''In Glacier National Park'' (1942)<ref name="National Archives 2017">{{cite web | title = Records of the National Park Service | url = https://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams | website = Ansel Adams Photographs | publisher = National Archives | date = June 26, 2017 | access-date = February 28, 2019 | archive-date = November 13, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181113025711/https://www.archives.gov/research/ansel-adams | url-status = live }}</ref>]]

Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured, and he became more established. The 1930s were a particularly experimental and productive time for him. He expanded the technical range of his works, emphasizing detailed close-ups as well as large forms, from mountains to factories.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/24185/ansel-adams-at-the-phoenix-art-museum/ | title = Ansel Adams at the Phoenix Art Museum | work = Art+Auction | year = 2006 | access-date = November 29, 2006 | archive-date = September 30, 2023 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230930083635/http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/24185/ansel-adams-at-the-phoenix-art-museum/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

Bender took Adams on visits to [[Taos, New Mexico]], where Adams met and made friends with the poet [[Robinson Jeffers]], artists [[John Marin]] and [[Georgia O'Keeffe]], and photographer [[Paul Strand]].<ref name="Russell 1984">{{Cite news | issn = 0362-4331 | last = Russell | first = John | title = Ansel Adams, Photographer, Is Dead | work = The New York Times | access-date = July 30, 2018 | date = April 24, 1984 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/24/obituaries/ansel-adams-photographer-is-dead.html | archive-date = November 27, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181127110227/https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/24/obituaries/ansel-adams-photographer-is-dead.html | url-status = live }}</ref> His talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him popular among his artist friends.{{Sfn |Alinder|1996| pp = 73–74}} His first book, ''[[Taos Pueblo (book)|Taos Pueblo]]'', was published in 1930 with text by writer [[Mary Hunter Austin]].<ref name="Russell 1984" />

Strand proved especially influential. Adams was impressed by the simplicity and detail of Strand's negatives, which showed a style that ran counter to the soft-focus, impressionistic pictorialism still popular at the time.<ref name="Morgan 2018" /><ref>{{Cite book | title = Who's Who in the Twentieth Century | date = 2003 | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-280091-6 | chapter = Adams, Ansel Easton | access-date = November 26, 2018 | chapter-url = http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780192800916.001.0001/acref-9780192800916-e-8 | doi = 10.1093/acref/9780192800916.001.0001 | url = https://archive.org/details/whoswhointwentie00brig }}</ref> Strand shared secrets of his technique with Adams and convinced him to pursue photography fully.{{sfn|Spaulding|1998|p=82}} One of Strand's suggestions that Adams adopted was to use glossy paper to intensify tonal values.{{sfn|Alinder|1996|p=68}}

Adams put on his first solo museum exhibition, ''Pictorial Photographs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Ansel Adams'', at the [[Smithsonian Institution]] in 1931; it featured 60 prints taken in the High Sierra and the [[Canadian Rockies]]. He received a favorable review from the ''Washington Post'': "His photographs are like portraits of the giant peaks, which seem to be inhabited by mythical gods."{{Sfn |Alinder|1996| p = 77}}

Despite his success, Adams felt that he was not yet up to the standards of Strand. He decided to broaden his subject matter to include still life and close-up photos and to achieve higher quality by "visualizing" each image before taking it. He emphasized the use of small apertures and long exposures in natural light, which created sharp details with a wide range of distances in focus, as demonstrated in ''Rose and Driftwood'' (1933),<ref>[https://www.artic.edu/artworks/82469/rose-and-driftwood-san-francisco-california Print of ''Rose and Driftwood, San Francisco, California''] in the collection of the [[Art Institute of Chicago]] (Ref. nr. 1954.1338).</ref> one of his finest still-life photographs.{{sfn|Alinder|1996|pp=67–69}}

In 1932, Adams had a group show at the [[M. H. de Young Museum]] with [[Imogen Cunningham]] and [[Edward Weston]], and they soon formed Group f/64 which espoused "pure or [[straight photography]]" over pictorialism ({{f/|64|link=yes}} being a very small [[aperture]] setting that gives great [[depth of field]]). The group's manifesto stated: "Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form."{{Sfn |Alinder|1996| p = 87}}

Imitating the example of photographer [[Alfred Stieglitz]], Adams opened his own art and photography gallery in San Francisco in 1933.{{Sfn |Adams|Alinder|1985| p = 115}} He also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote his first instructional book, ''Making a Photograph'', in 1935.{{Sfn |Alinder|1996| p = 114}}