Photo by Jim Covington Allen Anderson and Bill Cain, whose family honored him by being a supporting sponsor, attended the Ansel Adams Masterworks Exhibition Preview Celebration October 22, 2009, at the Columbia Museum of Art. Biographer and assistant to Ansel Adams, Mary Street Alinder presents an illustrated lecture and book signing on Saturday, November 7 at 1 pm. A limited number of copies of the out–of–print book, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography , are available for purchase in the Museum Shop for a book signing following the lecture. The lecture is $15 or $5 for members and is sponsored by the SC Humanities Council. The exhibition, Ansel Adams: Masterworks is on view through January 17, 2010.

When Adams asked Alinder in 1979 to direct his staff and to “make him write his autobiography,” she jumped at the chance. During the next five years, where Adams went, Alinder went, and her lecture is that unusual combination of history heightened by personal experience and insight. Adams was originally trained as a classical pianist, and as a finale Alinder shares the rare recording of Adams performing Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata . “I am honored to have the opportunity to speak about the Ansel Adams that I knew and the adventures of his life that made him who he was. I am particularly excited to be able to show a selection of beautiful and rarely seen images that he made in South Carolina,” Alinder said.

Example of photography by Ansel Adams Alinder is an independent scholar specializing in the history of photography. She is the biographer of Ansel Adams and an authority on 20th century photography. From 1979 until his death in 1984, Alinder worked as the chief assistant to Adams. In 1985, she completed the New York Times best seller, Ansel Adams: An Autobiography , followed by a companion book of letters in 1988. After eight additional years of rigorous research, Alinder’s Ansel Adams: A Biography was published in 1996 by Henry Holt Co. She has authored, co–authored and edited a number of other books and articles on fine art photography. She has lectured on Adams all over the world and lives in northern California.

Ansel Adams is recognized as one of the finest American artists of the 20th century, regardless of medium. In addition to his prodigious output of masterpiece photographs, Adams shared all he knew about his craft by writing books and teaching innumerable workshops until just before his death in 1984. His enormous sensitivity to the natural landscape did not stop in the darkroom but overflowed into political action. From serving on the board of directors of the Sierra Club from 1934–1971, to counseling presidents, to writing at least one letter a day about a particularly knotty environmental issue, Adams worked tirelessly for a healthy future for this planet.