Stewards of Ansel Adams: A Legacy Collection

Tom and Lynn Meredith

The photographs offered here have traveled extensively for more than four decades, not only to museums throughout the United States but also to international venues in China, Japan, Italy, Israel, and beyond. Several multi-venue traveling exhibitions were organized during Adams’ lifetime and posthumously under the auspices of The Friends of Photography.&nbsp; Since assuming ownership of the collection in 2002, Tom and Lynn Meredith continued to generously make these photographs available to tens of thousands of museum-goers.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Trace the tour of the Friends of Photography and The Meredith Collection throughout the United States.

A National Treasure

As has often been noted, the exact dating of Ansel Adams' photographs is complex as he was self-admittedly more interested in the technical information behind his photographs than in meticulous record-keeping of dates. In 2005, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, published the catalogue Ansel Adams in the Lane Collection, which included an illustrated appendix of the most comprehensive list to date of the studio stamps and labels Adams used throughout his career. The book is a testament to its authors Karen Haas, Lane Senior Curator of Photographs at the BMFA, and Rebecca Senf, who is now Chief Curator at the Center for Photography in Tucson.

Discover Ansel Adams’ distinctive print stamps

The Flip Side

Born in San Francisco in 1902, Ansel Adams captured unique views of the Golden Gate City’s architecture, inhabitants, and surrounding landscape during a pivotal time of urban development in the region. The city was central to his practice and ultimately to The Friends of Photography, which relocated to San Francisco in 1989 after Adams’ passing and continued to hold exhibitions in its renamed The Ansel Adams Center. Through The Meredith Collection, explore images of the Bay Area, of which several are believed to have never before appeared at auction.

San Francisco seen through the eyes of Ansel Adams.

Pacific Time

The Friends of Photography had a robust publishing program, from periodicals that kept members aware of organizational news, to monographs.

The Friends of Photography Publications

New York

The photographs have been copyrighted by the Trustees of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, and the Trustees reserve all publishing right and copyrights as well as all rights to use the name, likeness, and persona of Ansel Adams for commercial purposes and that, other than for public display of the photographs themselves, the photographs may not be reproduced for any purpose or utilized in violation of such copyrights, nor may the name, likeness, or persona of Ansel Adams be utilized for any commercial or other purpose, without the expressed written consent of the Trustees of the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

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This October, Sotheby’s is honored to present Ansel Adams: A Legacy, Photographs from the Meredith Collection. This acclaimed collection is comprised of photographs printed by Ansel Adams and later gifted to The Friends of Photography, the non-profit organization that inspired a generation of photographers to pursue their passion for the medium.

Ansel Adams: A Legacy Photographs from the Meredith Collection