Jessica Lee

A stark white Mount McKinley looms on the arctic horizon. The crystal-clear lake calmly reflects the grandeur of the mysterious 20,000-foot peak. There is not a human or manmade structure in sight. The midnight Alaskan sun glares across the tundra. And the whispering summer wind dies down for a split second.

He holds his breath. Snap.

Ansel Adams blinks from landscape to film. Now take a step back.

Denali National Park, in the interior of Alaska, was captured in radiant color in this black and white photograph that hangs in the UA Center for Creative Photography. A copy was given to President Jimmy Carter when the American photographer was invited to officially sketch his portrait in film. Adams spent an hour with the president encouraging him to protect the land in this photo by expanding the boundaries of the national park.

Not only was Adams a genius photographer, but he was also a passionate conservationist. The issue for him was simply black and white. ãWe either have wild places or we donât,ä Adams firmly believed. Amid its beauty, the wilderness is indispensable ÷ the land is the human inspirational core. And it is undisputable that Adams molded the way Americans envision our natural heritage.

Born in San Francisco in 1902, Adams stumbled on his lifelong passion at age 14 while on a family vacation to the Yosemite Valley. Jim McCarthy, the vice chairperson of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, noted in his Adams presentation on June 2, ãYosemite had a power that affected his soul. In a way analogous to John Muirâs writings of the Sierra Nevada, Adams Îwroteâ of Sierra Nevada with his camera and darkroom.ä

As Adams continued to astound the photographic community with his provocative technique and artistic style, he began to stun the country by his landscape contents. When Adams was criticized for his lack of human subject matter, McCarthy defined that he ãdefended the social significance of a rock.ä In his own words, Adams conceded the doctrine that ãhumanity needs the purely aesthetic just as much as it needs the purely material.ä

Visitors to the UA Ansel Adams Exhibit, which runs through July 7, who find themselves absorbed into a photograph for several minutes cannot disagree.

In 1927, Adams joined his first Sierra Club outing, never to be the same. Knowing that film was the best voice to advocate protecting the land, he ãfound that either he would act, or the places he loved would be lost for all time,ä McCarthy continued. In addition to writing on paper and film, he was elected onto the Sierra Club board of directors in 1937, eventually serving 37 years.

People do not protect places they do not know ÷ as an environmental realist would say. And Adamsâ work provoked a movement to save wild and sensitive lands to this day. ãIf you want to talk about conservation issues,ä Floyd Herbert, a research associate at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, told me, ãthen look at this photograph (of Tenaya Lake in Yosemite). When he took this picture there was no road here (pointing to a rugged rock edge next to a mountain lake). They could have buried the road in the forest here and not made a mess (as he points to the right edge of the photograph). It was needless.ä Herbert was at the exhibit studying Adamsâ photographic techniques.

As the 1979 master plan for Yosemite unfolded, Adams vigorously protested the development proposal that he considered ãquasi-urban.ä In defending the park from being loved-to-death by limitless visitors, he gave the metaphor of the opera house: ã · all seats are sold out and some standing room as well. That is the limit; we do not sell lap-room! If we accepted more people than space would permit, the performance would be ruined for all.ä

Adams understood that a natural land was not a venue to be sold, but a wonder to be experienced. If you are going to be looking at the back of the person in front of you the entire hike, you might as well stay in the city.

In Jimmy Carterâs citation for Adamsâ Presidential Medal of Freedom, he commented, ãAnsel Adams has been visionary in his efforts to preserve this countryâs wild and scenic areas, both on film and on Earth. Drawn to the beauty of natureâs monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself.ä

We need the wilderness. For those of you who claim no attachment to our natural lands, I dare you to view the Ansel Adams exhibit and come out without feeling even a tiny bit moved to protect these landscapes.

Do not wait.

If you do not act, you will lose your chance to view something amazingly moving and essential.