Ansel Adams: Photography from the Mountains to the Sea at National Maritime Museum

Despite being the most popular and arguably the most influential photographer in American history, this exhibition is an all-too-rare opportunity for UK audiences to see Ansel Adams' work exhibited on a large scale. Best known for his monumental photographs of mountains and parklands, Photography from the Mountains to the Sea turns the focus onto Adams’ lifelong fascination with water in all its forms. This major new display brings together the finest examples of Adams’s images of this elemental subject, combining some of the most famous photographs of the twentieth century with stunning, lesser-known examples. Fluid, ephemeral, and unpredictable, Adams returned to water throughout his career, in images of crashing waterfalls, dramatic rapids and geysers, placid ponds, raging rivers, and beautiful icescapes. Exhibition highlights include the very first photograph Adams ever made, at the age of 14; the three American Trust murals, produced in the 1950s on an unprecedented scale; and Adams’s favourite work, Golden Gate before the Bridge, which hung above his desk.