ADAMS, Ansel [Yousuf Karsh; Estrellita Karsh].
The Portfolios of Ansel Adams.
Boston: New York Graphic Society , 1977.
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First Edition of The Portfolios of Ansel Adams; Inscribed by Ansel Adams to Celebrated Portrait Photographer Yousuf Karsh in the Year of Publication
First edition of this comprehensive collection of 90 black-and-white photographs selected from seven limited-edition portfolios produced by Adams between 1948 and 1976. Square quarto, original publisher's cloth, profusely illustrated. Association copy, inscribed by Ansel Adams in the year of publication on the half-title page to celebrated portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh and his wife Estrellita, "For Yousuf Karsh and Estrellita with affection Ansel Adams Washington 9-23-77." Ansel Adams had been photographed by Karsh earlier that year in June. The recipient, Yousuf Karsh, is recognized as one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century. Arriving in Canada in 1924 as an Armenian refugee, Karsh eventually settled in Ottawa. Over six decades, he mastered the art of portraiture and created a unique chronicle of his time through images of celebrated legends. Some of his most notable subjects include Winston Churchill, Audrey Hepburn, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. Kennedy, and Ernest Hemingway, among others. A celebrity in his own right, he was an elegant and charming public figure, captivating audiences with compelling stories told in images and words. Karsh sought to capture, as he put it, the “elusive moment of truth,” revealing the essential nature of his subjects as reflected in their eyes, hands, and attitudes. From the collection of Yousuf Karsh with his estate label to the front pastedown. Held by the Estate of Yousuf & Estrellita Karsh; after Yousuf’s death in 2002 passing to Estrellita Karsh; after Estrellita’s death in March 2025 passing to Katherine Getchell. Fine in a fine dust jacket. Introduction by John Szarkowski.
The Portfolios of Ansel Adams (1977) is a landmark publication in the history of American photography, gathering in a single volume the ninety images drawn from Adams's seven portfolios produced between 1948 and 1976, each of which was originally issued as a limited run of signed prints. The book thus serves a dual function: as a documentary record of a deliberate and sustained artistic project, and as an act of democratic dissemination — making widely accessible a body of work that had previously circulated only among a narrow collector audience. Portfolio introductions are provided by Adams himself, alongside Nancy Newhall and Barrett Newhall, while an introduction by John Szarkowski, then Director of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art, lends the volume considerable institutional authority and situates Adams's output within the broader critical discourse of twentieth-century photography. The images themselves — encompassing Adams's signature landscapes of Yosemite, the American Southwest, and the Pacific coast rendered in his celebrated Zone System approach to tonal control — represent the full arc of his mature vision, and the book remains one of the most reliable and reproduced surveys of his work.
The Portfolios of Ansel Adams.
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