In Focus: Ansel Adams

Highlights from the Lawrence Janss Collection

February 21, 2019 to September 4, 2019

The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.

- Ansel Adams Tweet

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Margaret Fieweger McEnery and the City of Thousand Oaks

Thank you to our donors who support provides free admission to this exquisite exhibition:

Shawn and Letal Skelton
Tony & Jennifer Principe
Larry Janss

This exhibition is about the art of photography and the transformative impact an artist can have on an individual and society. In Lawrence Janss’ exquisite collection of Adams works, visitors will encounter the most popular landscape photographs in history.

Exhibition Essays

No Moonrise: The Birth Date of Moonrise

Larry Janss

The lore of the great Himself, Ansel Adams, is often at the heart of many fond, usually exaggerated, personal recollections of the jolly old elf. One of the great kafuffles spins around the precise “birthday” of Ansel Adam’s seminal work, “Moonrise, Hernandez”, arguably the one of the most significant photographs in photographic history.

The Lay of the Land

Colin Westerbeck

The subject of Ansel Adams’ best known photography is, of course, the drama of America’s western landscape. Yet in his old age, Adams himself became an even bigger subject. He turned into a mythic figure whose fame almost eclipsed the work on which it was based.

Quick Facts About Ansel Easton Adams

Born: February 20, 1902 San Francisco, CA

Died: April 22, 1984, Monterey, CA

Spouse: Virginia Best (m. 1928–1984)

Children: Anne Adams, Michael Adams

About Larry Janss

Larry Janss attended California Institute of the Arts where he studied film making and photography. His photographic education included in-depth workshop studies with Ansel Adams, John Sexton, Bruce Barnhaum, Cheri Hiser and many other noted professionals. Janss assisted Ansel Adams on many projects. Janss instructs on the technique and the history of fine art photography at both the university level and in small workshop settings.