The Surprising Source of Ansel Adams’s Signature Style

Photographer Ansel Adams, in an image which first appeared in the 1950 Yosemite Field School yearbook. Public Domain

Ansel Adams’s bold, black-and-white landscapes of the American wilderness are so iconic that most people know an Adams photograph when they see it.

You might be surprised to learn that Adams didn’t learn his craft by attending an elite art institution or by apprenticing with a master photographer.