COLUMBIA, SC.- Ansel Adams: Masterworks From the Collection of the Turtle Bay Exploration Center, Redding, CA opens on October 23, 2009 and runs through January 17, 2010. This collection of 47 gelatin silver prints by Ansel Adams (1902 -1984) represents a selection Adams made late in his life to serve as a representation of his life’s work and what he felt were his best images. Called “The Museum Set,” the full selection of 75 images reveals the importance Adams placed on the drama and splendor of natural environments. Included in Ansel Adams: Masterworks are many of Adams' most famous and best-loved photographs that encompass the full scope of his work: elegant details of nature, architectural studies, portraits, and the breathtaking landscapes for which he is revered.

In a career that spanned more than five decades, Ansel Adams became one of America’s most beloved landscape photographers and one of its most respected environmentalists. There are few artists whose name and works represent the extraordinary level of popular recognition and artistic achievement as that of Ansel Adams.

Adams’ popularity also lies in the fact that he starts with familiar subjects like aspens, mountain streams and rocky shorelines. Upon this foundation of the familiar he introduces a luminous, scintillating clarity, as in Mount Williamson, The Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California, included in the show.

Writers, critics and fellow artists have presented many reasons for Adams’ popularity. Among them is his deeply held conviction that place matters and that the world around us is a marvel to behold and to respect and honor. His photographs interpret the voice of nature and celebrate its beauty with poignant and romantic feeling. Through his meticulous selection from among all the variables of exposure, filter, position, and myriad other factors, Adams created a rationalized naturalness, free of the discomfort of chaos.

The collection was donated to The Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, CA, by Dr. Fidel Realyvasquez. The traveling exhibition is organized by The Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, CA, in association with Landau Traveling Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA. Since 1967, Landau Traveling Exhibitions has presented more than 700 fine art and architecture exhibitions at museums and university galleries throughout the United States and the world.