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The University of Michigan Museum of Art will be celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the birth of famed photographer Ansel Adams with the exhibit "Ansel Adams: A Centennial Celebration." This exhibit will be running until Sept. 22, and is located in the Box Gallery of the Michigan Museum of Art.

Adams was born in 1902 in San Francisco. As well as a photographer, Adams was a noted pianist. He realized at an early age that he would have to choose one passion over the other, as both endeavors would prove all-consuming. One important reason Adams ultimately chose photography over his music was because of a life-long love-affair with the majestic beauty of Yosemite National Park, which he first encountered at age of 14.

Adams was sometimes criticized by other photographers of his time, as well as by critics, for not using his art to capture life and human suffering during the Great Depression and other trying times in America. Adams, however, believed that his art should exist for just that purpose, to be art. His pieces did seem to comment not only on the beauty of nature, but also mankind's responsibility for it.

Although he photographed a wide range of subjects, Adams is perhaps most famous for his landscapes, which is what the majority of the exhibit is comprised of. This exhibit features work from Adams' many travels, with landscapes ranging from the deserts of the southwest to the frozen wilderness of Alaska. There are also a few portraits of Adams' friends, in which subtle nuances of character and personality are hinted at and displayed within the photography.

One of the most intriguing pictures of the exhibit is "White Post and Spandrel, Columbia, California, gelatin silver print." Nestled in among pictures of solid redwoods and sweeping aspens, this photograph first appeared out of place. This picture, however, offers yet another facet of Adams' versatility as a photographer, for here, a man-made object is afforded the same dignity as the most majestic of nature's offerings. This photograph also calls attention to Adams' sensitivity to light, and the way in which it can define and reveal objects. Decay is evident in the white post and spandrel, reminding the viewer that, although this is a man-made object, it is destined to return to the nature from which it came.

Several of the photographs' explanations in the exhibit are direct quotes from Adams about his own pieces. In his own words, Adams seems to be recalling to the viewer the date and time of when the picture was taken, as well as the thoughts that were going through his mind at the time his art was created. In this way, Adams was not only a photographer, but also a storyteller and teacher.

During 1944-1945, Adams lectured and taught courses in photography at the Museum of Modern Art in New York This teaching was followed by the establishment of one of the first departments of photography at the California School of Fine Arts (later the San Francisco Art Institute) in 1946. His extraordinary technical perfection and insistence of absolute control of the photographic process have influenced countless photographers of the twentieth century.

Although Adams is gone, his pictures remain poignant and hauntingly beautiful. Works of art created using the latest of ever advancing photographic technology cannot overshadow Adams' classic beauty and need for perfection.