Exploring the Nature of Adams’ Art : Exhibit: UC Irvine will display 100 prints and present a film series on the man who became legendary for his photographs of the wilderness.

Ansel Adams once made this little observation in a 1971 letter to friends: “All factors considered, the only way to save things is to eliminate two-thirds of the world population.”

Adams being no misanthrope, his comment was clearly a wry aside not meant to be taken seriously. But the statement nonetheless suggests something about the nature of his art, which was the art of nature, in its purist form.

Through a career that spanned almost 60 years, Adams, one of the country’s great conservationists, photographed wilderness as iconography, devoid of man and his intrusive ways. Adams’ landscapes are pristine, precise and without ambiguity or irony--people love them because they’re not complicated by people.

On Tuesday, UC Irvine will open an exhibit of 100 of Adams’ prints, including 75 selected by him as “representative of his life’s achievement.”

UCI also will present an Adams film series the next two Sunday afternoons. This week, the films are “Ansel Adams: Photographer,” “The Language of the Camera Eye” and “Photography as an Art.” On Jan. 13, “Points of View,” “Professional Photography” and “Technique” will be screened.

“Ansel Adams: Photographer” may have the greatest general appeal. This portrait touches on his methods and equipment but also focuses on his home life, artistic philosophy and musical talents.

Those not familiar with this most popular of American photographers may be surprised to learn that his creativity was first directed toward music. Born in San Francisco in 1902, Adams was trained as a concert pianist, studied classical music and veered into jazz, playing with several jazz bands while in his 20s.

But during that time, Adams found his photography hobby taking up more of his time. His first camera--a box Brownie given to him when he was 14--was followed by more sophisticated equipment, including the large-format view cameras on tripod that he favored.

It was with the Brownie that he took his earliest pictures of Yosemite Valley during a trip in 1916. Yosemite and the High Sierra would become his shrine, a place of inspiration that he documented with increasing zeal.

By the late 1920s, after gaining some success with his prints and meeting other photographers, including Edward Weston and Alfred Stieglitz, Adams had decided on a career.

Always a reformist when it came to nature, Adams became almost as well known for his conservationist pursuits as for his art. He was a national spokesman for wildlife until he died in 1984 and helped run the Sierra Club for many years.

Adams was praised for his technical mastery, which resulted in imagery so sharp and clean as to approach supernaturalism. Some critics have decried his photos as airless and antiseptic, but their craftsmanship has never been disputed.

Those interested in both his technique and point-of-view may find the other movies intriguing. Adams analyzes the photographs of Weston, Edward Steichen and Stieglitz in “The Language of the Camera Eye,” and discusses his methods for photographing Yosemite in “Photography as an Art.”

In “Points of View,” Adams captures an old house and the people who live there, explaining the nature of photography along the way. He talks about light, interpretation, filters and exposures in “Technique” and applies those techniques to industrial, advertising and portrait photography in “Professional Photography.”