Born in 1902 Adams would find his childhood years trying to discover his talent for things. His first experience with the arts was involved in the form of music. “ The world of music was an immediate contrast to my undisciplined life and unsuccessful performance in school.”(Alinder

23)1. Adams understood the concept of music and was able to apply these ideas to his work. Although Adams did not excel in school he was very interested in perfection for his love of art and music. Adams understanding of music would allow him to understand it in a way of saying “music is not simply putting one note after another; a tremendous variety of physical, aesthetic, and emotional situations are brought under control over the years by arduous practice”(Alinder 28)2. Adams was a very conservative man. He believed that everything was more emotionally activated than physically. During this same time the Adams family was in desperate times. With the depression going on and the loss of a family fortune rations where to be made. During this time the family would experience psychological depression, Adams writes, “ I could not understand it, but I was quite aware that something was wrong. My mother simply gave up in the face of continuing misfortune and spent much time staring at the floor and brooding over fate and circumstance”(Alinder 40)3. Adams soon took on the understanding of pictures and found himself involved in how the makings of the idea and presence of the camera worked. His picture of a mountainside can be best described as “ the exquisitely austere and glittering snowcapped mountains in his photographs, there physical beauty radiates beyond the surface-into a metaphysical realm of

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essences” (Lichenstein 6)4. Adams influences would soon allow him to look at nature in different perspectives. “ Adams early influence was John Muir, a Scotch immigrant, naturalist, and writer with a strong passion for the American wilderness” (Lichenstein 12)5. By understanding other people’s views about nature Adams would soon take on his form of what he perceived nature to be. He would soon incorporate “different levels of reality in his photographs, balancing elements of light, space, and texture” (Lichenstein 23)6.

Adams understanding and definition of photography is best described as “ the exposition of the fact that. . . pure photography is not a métier of rigid and restricted rule. It can interpret with beauty and power the wide spectrum of emotional experience” (Newhall 112)7. As Adams would spend most of his time in parks across the country he would write to his Aunt Mary “ I would have written sooner but I have not had time. I have walked 175 miles to date and feel fine” (Stillman 1)8. Adams love for nature would allow him to travel landscaped settings for days on foot to find the perfect picture. Adams describes his pictures as “ the mind’s eye that one creates a