Here’s a Great Documentary About the Life and Work of Ansel Adams

Want to be inspired by the great American photographer Ansel Adams? Here’s a fantastic 80-minute documentary film that PBS aired back in 2002. Titled Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film, it’s an in-depth study of Adams’ life and work.

The documentary was co-produced by the environmental organization the Sierra Club — Adams served on its board for nearly 40 years — and was watched by 5 million people when it originally aired on the 100th anniversary of Adams’ birth. Here’s a synopsis:

Ansel Adams is an elegant, moving and lyrical portrait of one of the most eloquent and quintessentially American photographers. At the heart of the film are the themes that absorbed Adams throughout his career: the beauty and fragility of “the American earth,” the inseparable bond between man and nature and the moral obligations that the present owes to the future.

You can purchase a DVD of this documentary for $14 from Amazon (it could make a great gift for a photography enthusiast in your life). We previously shared an interesting 20-minute documentary about Adams from 1958.