Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote in 1952 that the natural landscapes featured by Ansel Adams, devoid of any human presence, were not a worthy subject for photography.
This criticism was echoed by urbanites in New York who labelled some of Adams’ work as misanthropic, bleak, cold and so remote it had the potential to provoke terror.
“There is a person in every one of my photographs”, Adams would retort years later, perhaps understanding that city-dwelling critics would never understand his message.…