Hear Ansel Adams's recollection of this event: [961Kb Ulaw Soundfile]
Hear Ansel Adams's recollection of this event: [961Kb Ulaw Soundfile]
Adams and Newhall had collaborated on several books previously, most notable the best-selling Sierra Club publication, This Is The American Earth. They agreed on the spot, and four years later the result, Fiat Lux: The University of California, (McGraw Hill Book Company, 1967) was published.
In addition to the commemorative book Adams agreed to furnish a portfolio of fine prints capturing the breadth and variety of the University's nine campuses and its natural reserve system, research stations, and agricultural centers & field stations. The priceless result was a collection of 605 signed fine prints, all of them virtually the only signed print ever produced, which were catalogued as Centennial Photographs 1800 and placed in the University Archive, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
As part of the University of California, Irvine, twenty-fifth anniversary celebration in 1990-1991, UCI organized an exhibition of 100 prints from this collection. None of the prints had been exhibited previously. The world premier of "Ansel Adams: Fiat Lux" was held at the Irvine campus in January of 1991. The exhibition then toured five other UC campuses as well as the Oakland Museum.
The Ansel Adams interview was conducted by Catherine Harroun (above left) and Ruth Teiser (above center) in Ansel Adams home in the Carmel Highlands during a series of sessions in 1972, 1974, and 1975. The written transcript of the interview, Conversations with Ansel Adams, fills 768 pages, copies of which are available in the Bancroft Library in Berkeley and the Rivera Library in Riverside. We are grateful to the Regional Oral History Office and the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust for permission to share Ansel's comments about the Fiat Lux commission.
You will hear Ansel turning the pages of the centennial publication, Fiat Lux - The University of California McGraw Hill, 1968, as he comments on the photographs and responds to questions posed by Ms. Harroun and Ms. Teiser.
We have included 33 sound clips which are located throughout the exhibition. Please enjoy hearing Ansel Adams recall this monumental project.
Hear Ansel Adams sum up the Fiat Lux project: [739Kb Ulaw Soundfile]