Humble beginnings at the Sierra Club

In 1919, at age 17, Adams joined Sierra Club as a custodian to the club’s headquarters in Yosemite National Park, the Le Conte Memorial Lodge. It was during this period of time that Adams got to further develop his craft and interest in photography.

The Sierra Club, founded by John Muir in 1892, is a grassroots environmental organization primarily dedicated to preserving national parks and wilderness regions in the United States.

Adams’s stint at the Sierra Club proved to play a key role in contributing to his early success as a photographer. He became the official photographer for Sierra Club’s annual outing in 1928. The month-long outing, usually in the Sierra Nevada, was also known as the High Trip, where participants would hike to various campsites in the region daily. Adams’s also had his first solo exhibition of his photographs at the club’s San Francisco headquarters in the same year. Earlier, his photographs and writings were also published in the club’s 1922 Bulletin.

Adams involvement in the club grew as he rose up the ranks within the club in the following years. He became assistant manager of the High Trip in 1930 and would make proposals for improving the parks and wilderness. He would subsequently be elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club four years later, a role he held till his voluntary retirement in 1971. By then, Adams was “well established as both the artist of the Sierra Nevada and the defender of Yosemite.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

<- Back                                           Art In Action ->