Ansel Adams visited more than 40 national parks in his lifetime, lugging an 8x10-inch view camera, tripod, and photographic gear through often dense old-growth forest and over precarious mountain passes, often with a burro as traveling companion and baggage handler. His customized wood-paneled station wagon, nicknamed Helios, took him across the land and boasted a photographic platform on its roof, a mobile stage from which he could gain the best possible vantage points for image making.
With more than 225 photographs - many rarely seen and 50 never before published - Ansel Adams in the National Parks is the most comprehensive book of Adams' photographs of our national parks and wilderness areas. Edited by Andrea G. Stillman, who worked for Adams in the 1070's, it features original essays by critic Richard B. Woodward and commentary by Stillman on the making of various photographs, enlivened by quotations from Adams. Essays by Wallace Stegner, William A. Turnage of the Ansel Adams Trust, and Adams himself capture the essence of Ansel Adams as both gifted photographer and passionate environmentalist.