This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/6/2021
Ansel Easton Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating "pure" photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. He and Fred Archer developed an exacting system of image-making called the Zone System, a method of achieving a desired final print through a deeply technical understanding of how tonal range is recorded and developed during exposure, negative development, and printing. The resulting clarity and depth of such images characterized his photography.
Here is a rare chance to own the actual camera owned by a National Treasure, Ansel Adams and an actual photograph that was taken by him. In addition, we ahve found a photo of Adams using this very camera!
This Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera was designed and embossed by the Polaroid company for renowned American landscape photographer Ansel Adams. After being used by Adams, the camera became a gift given directly from Ansel Adams to his next door neighbor, Philip Gray (both residents of California). The lot also is accompanied by an actual photo of Philip Gray, which was taken by Ansel Adams and then personally autographed, “You the Man, Ansel Adams.” Written on the reverse of the polaroid in red ink is “Portrait of Philip Gray, Ansel Adams, February 1981”.
Ansel Adams Using Polaroid Camera
Polaroid Relationship
It is safe to say that Adams did a lot of work with various Polaroid cameras. He did a lot of consulting work for his friend Edwin Land who founded the Polaroid company.
Adams’s relationship with Polaroid began when he met the company’s founder Edwin Land in 1948. Impressed by Land’s work on photographic technologies, especially his vision for a “one step” camera — in which the traditional labor of darkroom photography would be done inside the camera itself — Adams proposed that he test Polaroid products.
By the 1960s, Adams was experiencing health issues, and thought that moving to a new home would make him feel better. His wife and he both had business ties to California, so they moved to Carmel Highlands on the Big Sur coastline. With architect Eldridge Spencer, they began planning the new home in 1961 and moved there in 1965. His neighbor, our consignor, received the camera as a gft in 1982.
Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera
The Polaroid SX-70 instant camera caused a worldwide stir when it was first released in 1972. The first-ever instant SLR (single reflex lens) camera, this tiny gem folds down to a generous pocket size and predated the camera phones we know today by almost thirty years. The camera was personally gifted to Ansel Adams by company executive and close personal friend Edwin Land. To document ownership of the personal gift, the camera was embossed, “Ansel Adams” in gold.
Awards
Adams received a number of awards during his lifetime and posthumously, and several awards and places have been named in his honor.
For his photography, Adams received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1976 and the Hasselblad Award in 1981. Two of his photographs, The Tetons and the Snake River and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach, were among the 115 images recorded on the Voyager Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecraft. These images were selected to convey information about humans, plants and animals, and geological features of the Earth to a possibly alien civilization.
For his conservation efforts, Adams received the Sierra Club John Muir Award in 1963. In 1968, he was awarded the Conservation Service Award, the highest award of the Department of the Interior. portrait of a U.S. president. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for "his efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a national institution."
Adams received an honorary artium doctor degree from Harvard University and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Yale University. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1966. In 2007, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver.
The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography was established in 1971, and the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation was established in 1980 by The Wilderness Society, which also has a large permanent gallery of his work on display at its Washington, D.C. headquarters.The Minarets Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest and a 11,760-foot (3,580 m) peak therein were renamed the Ansel Adams Wilderness and Mount Ansel Adams, respectively, in 1985.
In 2017 Adams was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame.
Camera remains in great condition. LOA from son of original owner, Michael Gray. Michael Gray starred as Billy Batson on the 1974-1976 TV show, Shazam. LOA from Michael Gray, Troy R Kinunen/ MEARS.
(49Y0461)
(MEARS Auction LOA; JSA Auction Letter)