Ansel Adams' Island images returning

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser staff writer

"Detail/Hawaiian Forest, 1956." Ansel Adams, best known for his photographs of nature like this one, also documented the effects of development on the Islands. Ansel Adams, courtesy Mr. and Mrs. Henry B. Clark Jr.

A conservationist and nature lover best known for his stunning black and white landscapes of Yosemite and the Western states, Adams was a master of darkroom technique and was both revered and reviled in his time. His signature technique of bathing images in a soft and misty focus was reminiscent of Impressionist painters in a time when photographs tended to offer the minute detail of real life.

Adams' Hawai'i work was commissioned to document the state of the Islands for the books "The Islands of Hawaii" in 1958 and "An Introduction To Hawaii" in 1964. The academy exhibit of Adams' Hawai'i photography will include images both timeless and modern, offering a mix of untouched wilderness landscapes and glimpses of the state's mid-century development. For more information, call 532-8700.