title: Ansel Adams

text: His father raised him to follow the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson: to live a modest, moral life guided by a social responsibility to man and nature. Adams had a loving relationship with his father, but he had a distant relationship with his mother, who did not approve of his interest in photography. The day after her death in 1950, Ansel had a dispute with the undertaker when choosing the casket in which to bury her. He chose the cheapest in the room, a $260 coffin that seemed the least he could purchase without doing the job himself. The undertaker remarked, "Have you no respect for the dead?" Adams replied, "One more crack like that and I will take Mama elsewhere."


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams became interested in playing the piano at age 12 after hearing his 16-year-old neighbor Henry Cowell play on the Adamses' piano, and he taught himself to play and read music. Cowell, who later became a well-known avant-garde composer, gave Adams some lessons. Over the next decade, three music teachers pushed him to develop technique and discipline, and he became determined to pursue a career as a classical pianist.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams first visited Yosemite National Park in 1916 with his family. He wrote of his first view of the valley: "the splendor of Yosemite burst upon us and it "was" glorious…. One wonder after another descended upon us…. There was light everywhere…. A new era began for me." His father gave him his first camera during that stay, an Eastman Kodak Brownie box camera, and he took his first photographs with his "usual hyperactive enthusiasm". He returned to Yosemite on his own the next year with better cameras and a tripod. During the winters of 1917 and 1918, he learned basic darkroom technique while working part-time for a San Francisco photograph finisher.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams contracted the Spanish flu during the 1918 flu pandemic, from which he needed several weeks to recuperate. He read a book about lepers and became obsessed with cleanliness; he was afraid to touch anything without immediately washing his hands afterwards. Over the objections of his doctor, he prevailed on his parents to take him back to Yosemite, and the visit cured him of his disease and compulsions.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams avidly read photography magazines, attended camera club meetings, and went to photography and art exhibits. He explored the High Sierra during summer and winter with retired geologist and amateur ornithologist Francis Holman, whom he called "Uncle Frank". Holman taught him camping and climbing; however, their shared ignorance of safe climbing techniques such as belaying almost led to disaster on more than one occasion.


title: Ansel Adams

text: While in Yosemite, Adams had need of a piano to practice on. A ranger introduced him to landscape painter Harry Best, who kept a studio home in Yosemite and lived there during the summers. Best allowed Adams to practice on his old square piano. Adams grew interested in Best's daughter Virginia and later married her. On her father's death in 1936, Virginia inherited the studio and continued to operate it until 1971. The studio is now known as the Ansel Adams Gallery and remains owned by the Adams family.


title: Ansel Adams

text: At age 17, Adams joined the Sierra Club, a group dedicated to protecting the wild places of the earth, and he was hired as the summer caretaker of the Sierra Club visitor facility in Yosemite Valley, the LeConte Memorial Lodge, from 1920 to 1923. He remained a member throughout his lifetime and served as a director, as did his wife. He was first elected to the Sierra Club's board of directors in 1934 and served on the board for 37 years. Adams participated in the club's annual High Trips, later becoming assistant manager and official photographer for the trips. He is credited with several first ascents in the Sierra Nevada.


title: Ansel Adams

text: During his twenties, most of his friends had musical associations, particularly violinist and amateur photographer Cedric Wright, who became his best friend as well as his philosophical and cultural mentor. Their shared philosophy was from Edward Carpenter's "Towards Democracy", a literary work which endorsed the pursuit of beauty in life and art. For several years, Adams carried a pocket edition with him while at Yosemite; and it became his personal philosophy as well. He later stated, "I believe in beauty. I believe in stones and water, air and soil, people and their future and their fate."


title: Ansel Adams

text: During summer, Adams would enjoy a life of hiking, camping, and photographing; and the rest of the year he worked to improve his piano playing, perfecting his piano technique and musical expression. He also gave piano lessons for extra income that allowed him to purchase a grand piano suitable to his musical ambitions. Adams was still planning a career in music. He felt that his small hands limited his repertoire, but qualified judges considered him a gifted pianist. However, when he formed the Milanvi Trio with a violinist and a dancer, he proved a poor accompanist. It took seven more years for him to conclude that, at best, he might become only a concert pianist of limited range, an accompanist, or a piano teacher.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams's first photographs were published in 1921, and Best's Studio began selling his Yosemite prints the next year. His early photos already showed careful composition and sensitivity to tonal balance. In letters and cards to family, he wrote of having dared to climb to the best viewpoints and to brave the worst elements.


title: Ansel Adams

text: During the mid-1920s, the fashion in photography was pictorialism, which strove to imitate paintings with soft focus, diffused light, and other techniques. Adams experimented with such techniques, as well as the bromoil process, which involved brushing an oily ink onto the paper. An example is "Lodgepole Pines, Lyell Fork of the Merced River, Yosemite National Park" (originally named "Tamarack Pine"), taken in 1921. Adams used a soft-focus lens, "capturing a glowing luminosity that captured the mood of a magical summer afternoon".


title: Ansel Adams

text: For a short time Adams used hand-coloring, but declared in 1923 that he would do this no longer. By 1925 he had rejected pictorialism altogether for a more realistic approach that relied on sharp focus, heightened contrast, precise exposure, and darkroom craftsmanship.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1927, Adams began working with Albert M. Bender, a San Francisco insurance magnate and arts patron. Bender helped Adams produce his first portfolio in his new style, "Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras", which included his famous image "Monolith, the Face of Half Dome", which was taken with his Korona view camera, using glass plates and a dark red filter (to heighten the tonal contrasts). On that excursion, he had only one plate left, and he "visualized" the effect of the blackened sky before risking the last image. He later said, "I had been able to realize a desired image: not the way the subject appeared in reality but how it "felt" to me and how it must appear in the finished print." One biographer calls "Monolith" Adams's most significant photograph because the "extreme manipulation of tonal values" was a departure from all previous photography. Adams's concept of visualization, which he first defined in print in 1934, became a core principle in his photography.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams's first portfolio was a success, earning nearly $3,900 with the sponsorship and promotion of Bender. Soon he received commercial assignments to photograph the wealthy patrons who bought his portfolio. He also began to understand how important it was that his carefully crafted photos were reproduced to best effect. At Bender's invitation, he joined the Roxburghe Club, an association devoted to fine printing and high standards in book arts. He learned much about printing techniques, inks, design, and layout, which he later applied to other projects.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams married Virginia Best in 1928, after a pause from 1925 to 1926 during which he had brief relationships with various women. The newlyweds moved in with his parents to save expenses. The following year, they had a home built next door and connected it to the older house by a hallway.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Between 1929 and 1942, Adams's work matured, and he became more established. The 1930s were a particularly experimental and productive time for him. He expanded the technical range of his works, emphasizing detailed close-ups as well as large forms, from mountains to factories.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Bender took Adams on visits to Taos, New Mexico, where Adams met and made friends with the poet Robinson Jeffers, artists John Marin and Georgia O'Keeffe, and photographer Paul Strand. His talkative, high-spirited nature combined with his excellent piano playing made him popular among his artist friends. His first book, "Taos Pueblo", was published in 1930 with text by writer Mary Hunter Austin.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Strand proved especially influential. Adams was impressed by the simplicity and detail of Strand's negatives, which showed a style that ran counter to the soft-focus, impressionistic pictorialism still popular at the time. Strand shared secrets of his technique with Adams and convinced him to pursue photography fully. One of Strand's suggestions that Adams adopted was to use glossy paper to intensify tonal values.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams put on his first solo museum exhibition, "Pictorial Photographs of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Ansel Adams", at the Smithsonian Institution in 1931; it featured 60 prints taken in the High Sierra and the Canadian Rockies. He received a favorable review from the "Washington Post": "His photographs are like portraits of the giant peaks, which seem to be inhabited by mythical gods."


title: Ansel Adams

text: Despite his success, Adams felt that he was not yet up to the standards of Strand. He decided to broaden his subject matter to include still life and close-up photos and to achieve higher quality by "visualizing" each image before taking it. He emphasized the use of small apertures and long exposures in natural light, which created sharp details with a wide range of distances in focus, as demonstrated in "Rose and Driftwood" (1933), one of his finest still-life photographs.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1932, Adams had a group show at the M. H. de Young Museum with Imogen Cunningham and Edward Weston, and they soon formed Group f/64 which espoused "pure or straight photography" over pictorialism ( being a very small aperture setting that gives great depth of field). The group's manifesto stated: "Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form."


title: Ansel Adams

text: Imitating the example of photographer Alfred Stieglitz, Adams opened his own art and photography gallery in San Francisco in 1933. He also began to publish essays in photography magazines and wrote his first instructional book, "Making a Photograph", in 1935.


title: Ansel Adams

text: During the summers, Adams often participated in Sierra Club High Trips outings, as a paid photographer for the group; and the rest of the year a core group of Club members socialized regularly in San Francisco and Berkeley. In 1933, his first child Michael was born, followed by Anne two years later.


title: Ansel Adams

text: During the 1930s, Adams began to deploy his photographs in the cause of wilderness preservation. He was inspired partly by the increasing incursion into Yosemite Valley of commercial development, including a pool hall, bowling alley, golf course, shops, and automobile traffic. He created the limited-edition book "Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail" in 1938, as part of the Sierra Club's efforts to secure the designation of Kings Canyon as a national park. This book and his testimony before Congress played a vital role in the success of that effort, and Congress designated Kings Canyon as a national park in 1940.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1935, Adams created many new photographs of the Sierra Nevada; and one of his most famous, "Clearing Winter Storm," depicted the entire Yosemite Valley, just as a winter storm abated, leaving a fresh coat of snow. He gathered his recent work and had a solo show at Stieglitz's "An American Place" gallery in New York in 1936. The exhibition proved successful with both the critics and the buying public, and earned Adams strong praise from the revered Stieglitz. The following year, the negative for "Clearing Winter Storm" was almost destroyed when the darkroom in Yosemite caught fire. With the help of Edward Weston and Charis Wilson (Weston's future wife), Adams put out the fire, but thousands of negatives, including hundreds that had never been printed, were lost.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1937, Adams, O'Keeffe, and friends organized a month-long camping trip in Arizona, with Orville Cox, the head wrangler at Ghost Ranch, as their guide. Both artists created new work during this trip. Adams made a candid portrait of O'Keeffe with Cox on the rim of Canyon de Chelly. Adams once remarked, "Some of my best photographs have been made in and on the rim of [that] canyon." Their works set in the desert Southwest are often published and exhibited together.


title: Ansel Adams

text: During the rest of the 1930s, Adams took on many commercial assignments to supplement the income from the struggling Best's Studio. He depended on such assignments financially until the 1970s. Some of his clients included Kodak, "Fortune" magazine, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, AT&T, and the American Trust Company. He photographed Timothy L. Pflueger's new Patent Leather Bar for the St. Francis Hotel in 1939. The same year, he was named an editor of "U.S. Camera & Travel", the most popular photography magazine at that time.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1940, Adams created "A Pageant of Photography", the largest and most important photography show in the West to date, attended by millions of visitors. With his wife, Adams completed a children's book and the very successful "Illustrated Guide to Yosemite Valley" during 1940 and 1941. He also taught photography by giving workshops in Detroit. Adams also began his first serious stint of teaching, which included the training of military photographers, in 1941 at the Art Center School of Los Angeles, now known as the Art Center College of Design.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1941, Adams contracted with the National Park Service to make photographs of National Parks, Indian reservations, and other locations managed by the department, for use as mural-sized prints to decorate the department's new building. The contract was for 180 days. Adams set off on a road trip with his friend Cedric and his son Michael, intending to combine work on the "Mural Project" with commissions for the U.S. Potash Company and Standard Oil, with some days reserved for personal work.


title: Ansel Adams

text: While in New Mexico for the project, Adams photographed a scene of the Moon rising above a modest village with snow-covered mountains in the background, under a dominating black sky. The photograph is one of his most famous and is named "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico". Adams's description in his later books of how it was made probably enhanced the photograph's fame: the light on the crosses in the foreground was rapidly fading, and he could not find his exposure meter; however, he remembered the luminance of the Moon and used it to calculate the proper exposure. Adams's earlier account was less dramatic, stating simply that the photograph was made after sunset, with exposure determined using his Weston Master meter.


title: Ansel Adams

text: However the exposure was actually determined, the foreground was underexposed, the highlights in the clouds were quite dense, and the negative proved difficult to print. The initial publication of "Moonrise" was in "U.S. Camera 1943" annual, after being selected by the "photo judge" for "U.S. Camera", Edward Steichen. This gave "Moonrise" an audience before its first formal exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1944.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Over nearly 40 years, Adams re-interpreted the image, his most popular by far, using the latest darkroom equipment at his disposal, making over 1,369 unique prints, mostly in 16" by 20" format. Many of the prints were made during the 1970s, with their sale finally giving Adams financial independence from commercial projects. The total value of these original prints exceeds $25,000,000; the highest price paid for a single print of "Moonrise" reached $609,600 at a 2006 Sotheby's auction in New York.


title: Ansel Adams

text: The Mural Project ended on June 30, 1942; and because of the World War, the murals were never created. Adams sent a total of 225 small prints to the DOI, but held on to the 229 negatives. These include many famous images such as "The Tetons and the Snake River". Although they were legally the property of the U.S. Government, he knew that the National Archives did not take proper care of photographic material, and used various subterfuges to evade queries.


title: Ansel Adams

text: The ownership of one image in particular has attracted interest: "Moonrise". Although Adams kept meticulous records of his travel and expenses, he was less disciplined about recording the dates of his images, and he neglected to note the date of "Moonrise". But the position of the Moon allowed the image to be eventually dated from astronomical calculations, and in 1991 Dennis di Cicco of "Sky & Telescope" determined that "Moonrise" was made on November 1, 1941. Since this was a day for which he had not billed the department, the image belonged to Adams.


title: Ansel Adams

text: When Edward Steichen formed his Naval Aviation Photographic Unit in early 1942, he wanted Adams to be a member, to build and direct a state-of-the-art darkroom and laboratory in Washington, D.C. Around February 1942, Steichen asked Adams to join him in the navy. Adams agreed, but with two conditions: He wanted to be commissioned as an officer, and he would not be available until July 1. Steichen, who wanted the team assembled as quickly as possible, passed on Adams and had his other photographers ready by early April.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams was distressed by the Japanese American internment that occurred after the Pearl Harbor attack. He requested permission to visit the Manzanar War Relocation Center in the Owens Valley, at the base of Mount Williamson. The resulting photo-essay first appeared in a Museum of Modern Art exhibit, and later was published as "Born Free and Equal: The Story of Loyal Japanese-Americans". Upon its release, "[the book] was met with some distressing resistance and was rejected by many as disloyal." This work was a significant departure, stylistically and philosophically, from the work for which Adams is generally known. He also contributed to the war effort by doing many photographic assignments for the military, including making prints of secret Japanese installations in the Aleutians.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1943, Adams had a camera platform mounted on his station wagon, to afford him a better vantage point over the immediate foreground and a better angle for expansive backgrounds. Most of his landscapes from that time forward were made from the roof of his car rather than from summits reached by rugged hiking, as in his earlier days.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams was the recipient of three Guggenheim Fellowships during his career, the first being awarded in 1946 to photograph every national park. At that time, there were 28 national parks, and Adams photographed 27 of them, missing only Everglades National Park in Florida. This series of photographs produced memorable images of Old Faithful Geyser, Grand Teton, and Mount McKinley.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1945, Adams was asked to form the first fine art photography department at the California School of Fine Arts. Adams invited Dorothea Lange, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston to be guest lecturers, and Minor White to be the principal instructor. The photography department produced numerous notable photographers, including Philip Hyde, Benjamen Chinn, and Bill Heick.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1952 Adams was one of the founders of the magazine "Aperture", which was intended as a serious journal of photography, displaying its best practitioners and newest innovations. He was also a contributor to "Arizona Highways", a photo-rich travel magazine. His article on "Mission San Xavier del Bac", with text by longtime friend Nancy Newhall, was enlarged into a book published in 1954. This was the first of many collaborations with her.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In June 1955, Adams began his annual workshops at Yosemite. They continued to 1981, attracting thousands of students. He continued with commercial assignments for another twenty years, and became a consultant, with a monthly retainer, for Polaroid Corporation, which was founded by good friend Edwin Land. He made thousands of photographs with Polaroid products, "El Capitan, Winter, Sunrise" (1968) being the one he considered most memorable. During the final twenty years of his life, the 6x6 cm medium format Hasselblad was his camera of choice, with "Moon and Half Dome" (1960) being his favorite photograph made with that brand of camera.


title: Ansel Adams

text: From 1957 until 1962, Geraldine "Gerry" Sharpe served as his photography assistant, and they often took photos of the same locations.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams published his fourth portfolio, "What Majestic Word", in 1963, and dedicated it to the memory of his Sierra Club friend Russell Varian, who was a co-inventor of the klystron and who had died in 1959. The title was taken from the poem "Sand Dunes", by John Varian, Russell's father, and the fifteen photographs were accompanied by the writings of both John and Russell Varian. Russell's widow, Dorothy, wrote the preface, and explained that the photographs were selected to serve as interpretations of the character of Russell Varian.


title: Ansel Adams

text: By the 1960s, Adams had developed gout and arthritis and hoped that moving to a new home would make him feel better. He and his wife considered Santa Fe, but they both had commitments in California (Virginia was managing the Yosemite studio of her father). A friend offered to sell them property in Carmel Highlands, overlooking the Big Sur coastline. With architect Eldridge Spencer, they began planning the new home in 1961 and moved there in 1965. Adams began to devote much of his time to printing the backlog of negatives that had accumulated over forty years.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In the 1960s, a few mainstream art galleries that had considered photography unworthy of exhibit alongside fine paintings decided to show Adams's images, particularly the former Kenmore Gallery in Philadelphia. In March 1963, Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall accepted a commission from Clark Kerr, the president of the University of California, to produce a series of photographs of the university's campuses to commemorate its centennial celebration. The collection, titled "Fiat Lux" after the university's motto, was published in 1967 and now resides in the Museum of Photography at the University of California, Riverside.


title: Ansel Adams

text: During the 1970s, Adams reprinted negatives from his vault, in part to satisfy the demand of art museums that had recently established departments of photography.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1972, Adams contributed images to help publicize Proposition 20, which authorized the state to regulate development along portions of the California coast.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1974, he exhibited at the Rencontres d'Arles (formerly known as the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d'Arles), an annual summer photography festival in France. He also had a major retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1975, he cofounded the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, which handles some of his estate matters.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1979, President Jimmy Carter commissioned Adams to make the first official photographic portrait of a U.S. president.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams died from cardiovascular disease on April 22, 1984, in the intensive-care unit at the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, California, at age 82. He was surrounded by his wife, children Michael and Anne, and five grandchildren. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered on the Half Dome at Yosemite National Park.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Publishing rights for most of Adams's photographs are handled by the trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust. An archive of Adams's work is located at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Numerous works by the artist have been sold at auction, including a mural-sized print of "Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park", which sold at Sotheby's New York in June 2010 for $722,500, then the highest price ever paid for an original Ansel Adams photograph. This price was surpassed by another mural-sized print of one of his photographs, "The Tetons and the Snake River", sold for $988,000 at Sotheby's New York, on 14 December 2020.


title: Ansel Adams

text: John Szarkowski states in the introduction to "Ansel Adams: Classic Images" (1985, p. 5), "The love that Americans poured out for the work and person of Ansel Adams during his old age, and that they have continued to express with undiminished enthusiasm since his death, is an extraordinary phenomenon, perhaps even unparalleled in our country's response to a visual artist."


title: Ansel Adams

text: Romantic landscape artists Albert Bierstadt and Thomas Moran portrayed the Grand Canyon and Yosemite during the 19th century, followed by photographers Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, and George Fiske. Adams's work is distinguished from theirs by his interest in the transient and ephemeral. He photographed at varying times of the day and of the year, capturing the landscape's changing light and atmosphere.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Art critic John Szarkowski wrote, "Ansel Adams attuned himself more precisely than any photographer before him to a visual understanding of the specific quality of the light that fell on a specific place at a specific moment. For Adams the natural landscape is not a fixed and solid sculpture but an insubstantial image, as transient as the light that continually redefines it. This sensibility to the specificity of light was the motive that forced Adams to develop his legendary photographic technique."


title: Ansel Adams

text: The creation of Adams's grand, highly detailed images was driven by his interest in the natural environment. With increasing environmental degradation in the West during the 20th century, his photos show a commitment to conservation. His black-and-white photographs were not just documentation, but reflected a sublime experience of nature as a spiritual place.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1955, Edward Steichen selected Adams's "Mount Williamson" for the world-touring Museum of Modern Art exhibition "The Family of Man", which was seen by nine million visitors. At , his was the largest print in the exhibition, presented floor-to-ceiling in a prominent position as the backdrop to the section "Relationships", as a reminder of the essential reliance of humanity on the soil. However, despite its striking and prominent display, Adams expressed displeasure at the "gross" enlargement and "poor" quality of the print.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1932, Adams helped form the anti‐pictorialist Group f/64, a loose and relatively short-lived association of like-minded "straight" or "pure" photographers on the West Coast whose members included Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham. The modernist group favored sharp focus—f/64 being a very small aperture setting that gives great depth of field on large-format view cameras—contact printing, precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects, and the use of the entire tonal range of a photograph.


title: Ansel Adams

text: The f/64 school met with opposition from the pictorialists, particularly William Mortensen, who called their work "hard and brittle". Adams disliked the work of Mortensen and disliked him personally, referring to him as the "Anti-Christ". The purists were friends with prominent historians, and their influence led to the exclusion of Mortensen from histories of photography.


title: Ansel Adams

text: While Adams and portrait photographer Fred Archer were teaching at the Art Center School in Los Angeles, around 1939–1940, they developed the Zone System for managing the photographic process, which was based on sensitometry, the study of the light-sensitivity of photographic materials and the relationship between exposure time and the resulting density on a negative. The Zone System provides a calibrated scale of brightness, from Zone 0 (black) through shades of gray to Zone X (white). The photographer can take light readings of key elements in a scene and use the Zone System to determine how the film must be exposed, developed, and printed to achieve the desired brightness or darkness in the final image. Although it originated for black-and-white sheet film, the Zone System can be applied to images captured on roll film, both black-and-white and color, negative and reversal, and to digital photography.


title: Ansel Adams

text: In 1940, with trustee David H. McAlpin and curator Beaumont Newhall, Adams helped establish the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. was the first major American art museum to establish a photography department. Adams acted as McAlpin and Newhall's primary advisor; Peter Galassi, the chief curator of the department in later years, said "Adams's dedication and boundless energy were vital to the creation of the department and to its programs in its early years." For those who had sought institutional recognition for photography as art, the founding of the department was an important moment, marking the medium's recognition as a subject equal to painting and sculpture.


title: Ansel Adams

text: On December 31, 1940, the department opened its first exhibition, "Sixty Photographs: A Survey of Camera Esthetics", which resembled large survey exhibitions that Adams and Newhall had previously mounted independently. The exhibition took aesthetic quality as a guiding principle, a philosophy that ran counter to that of many writers and critics, who argued that the medium's more vernacular use as a means of communication should be more fully represented. Photographer Ralph Steiner, writing for "PM", remarked "on the whole it [MoMA] seems to regard photography as soft music at high tea rather than as a jazz at a beefsteak supper." Tom Maloney, publisher of "U.S. Camera", wrote that the exhibition was "very choice, very pristine, very small, very ultra." According to Newhall, the exhibition was meant to showcase artistic excellence and "not to define but to suggest the possibilities of photographic vision."


title: Ansel Adams

text: In his autobiography, Adams expressed his concern about Americans' loss of connection to nature in the course of industrialization and the exploitation of the land's natural resources. He stated, "We all know the tragedy of the dustbowls, the cruel unforgivable erosions of the soil, the depletion of fish or game, and the shrinking of the noble forests. And we know that such catastrophes shrivel the spirit of the people... The wilderness is pushed back, man is everywhere. Solitude, so vital to the individual man, is almost nowhere."


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams received a number of awards during his lifetime and posthumously, and several awards and places have been named in his honor.


title: Ansel Adams

text: For his photography, Adams received an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1976 and the Hasselblad Award in 1981. Two of his photographs, "The Tetons and the Snake River" and a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Baker Beach, were among the 115 images recorded on the Voyager Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecraft. These images were selected to convey information about humans, plants and animals, and geological features of the Earth to a possibly alien civilization.


title: Ansel Adams

text: For his conservation efforts, Adams received the Sierra Club John Muir Award in 1963. In 1968, he was awarded the Conservation Service Award, the highest award of the Department of the Interior. In 1980, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, for "his efforts to preserve this country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a national institution."


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams received an honorary "artium doctor" degree from Harvard University and an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Yale University. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1966. In 2007, he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver.


title: Ansel Adams

text: The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography was established in 1971, and the Ansel Adams Award for Conservation was established in 1980 by The Wilderness Society, which also has a large permanent gallery of his work on display at its Washington, D.C. headquarters. The Minarets Wilderness in the Inyo National Forest and a peak therein were renamed the Ansel Adams Wilderness and Mount Ansel Adams, respectively, in 1985.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams was known mostly for his boldly printed, large-format black-and-white images, but he also worked extensively with color. However, he preferred black-and-white photography, which he believed could be manipulated to produce a wide range of bold, expressive tones, and he felt constricted by the rigidity of the color process. Most of his color work was done on assignments, and he did not consider his color work to be important or expressive, even explicitly forbidding any posthumous exploitation of his color work.


title: Ansel Adams

text: Most of Adams' best known images were taken with 8x10 and 4x5 view cameras. He also used a variety of other negative formats, from 35mm and medium format roll film through less common formats such as Polaroid type 55 and 7x17 panoramic cameras.


title: Ansel Adams

text: The 1958 documentary "Ansel Adams, Photographer" narrated by Beaumont Newhall gives an overview of Ansel's toolkit at the time, with some examples of his camera outfits including:


title: Ansel Adams

text: Adams mounted a platform on the roof of his car to allow him to take images with the view cameras from an elevated point of view.


title: Elliot Page

text: Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award nomination, two BAFTA Awards and Primetime Emmy Award nominations, and a Satellite Award. Page publicly came out as transgender in December 2020. In March 2021, he became the first openly trans man to appear on the cover of "Time".


title: Elliot Page

text: Page first came to recognition for his role in the television franchise "Pit Pony" (1997–2000), for which he was nominated for a Young Artist Award, and for his recurring roles in "Trailer Park Boys" (2002) and "ReGenesis" (2004). One of Page's first roles in a mainstream US-distributed film was in the 2003 made-for-television film "Going For Broke". Page had his breakthrough starring in the film "Hard Candy" (2005), for which he won an Austin Film Critics Association Award and received an Empire Award nomination. He received critical acclaim for portraying the title role in Jason Reitman's film "Juno" (2007), and earned nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, a Critics' Choice Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance. At age 20, it made him the fourth-youngest nominee for the Academy Award Best Actress at the time.


title: Elliot Page

text: Page has earned additional accolades and praise for roles in "The Tracey Fragments" (2007), "Whip It" (2009), "Super" (2010), "Inception" (2010), and "Tallulah" (2016). He has also portrayed Kitty Pryde in the "X-Men" films "" (2006) and "" (2014), produced the film "Freeheld" (2015) in which he also starred, and made his directorial debut with the documentary "There's Something in the Water" (2019). He provided voice acting and motion-capture acting for the main character in the video game "" (2013), for which he received a BAFTA Games Award nomination. His later television credits include hosting the documentary series "Gaycation" (2016–2017), for which he was nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, and portraying Viktor Hargreeves in the Netflix series "The Umbrella Academy" (2019–present).


title: Elliot Page

text: Page was born on February 21, 1987, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, to Martha Philpotts, a teacher, and Dennis Page, a graphic designer. He was assigned female at birth and used his birth name of Ellen prior to transitioning. Page attended the Halifax Grammar School until grade 10, and spent some time at Queen Elizabeth High School. After graduating from the Shambhala School in 2005, Page spent two years in Toronto, studying in the Interact Program at Vaughan Road Academy, along with close friend and fellow Canadian actor Mark Rendall.


title: Elliot Page

text: Page first acted on camera in 1997 at the age of ten, starring as Maggie Maclean in the CBC Television movie "Pit Pony", which later spun off into a television series of the same name that ran from 1999 to 2000. For the role, he was nominated for a Young Artist Award. In 2002, Page starred as Joanie in the film "Marion Bridge", which is noted for being his first feature-film role. In the same year, he was cast in the television series "Trailer Park Boys" in the recurring role of Treena Lahey, which he played for five episodes. Page had roles in the films "Touch & Go" and "Love That Boy" in 2003, and he also starred in the television films "" and "Ghost Cat" in the same year. For "Ghost Cat", he won the Gemini Award for Best Performance in a Children's or Youth Program or Series. In 2004, Page starred in the drama "Wilby Wonderful", for which he won an award at the Atlantic Film Festival and was nominated for a Genie Award. Also in 2004, he had a recurring role in season 1 of the series "ReGenesis" as Lilith Sandström, daughter of the show's protagonist.


title: Elliot Page

text: In 2005, Page received recognition for his role in the movie "Hard Candy", where he portrayed Hayley Stark, a young girl who takes a pedophile hostage. The film was a critical and commercial success, and he received acclaim for his performance, with "USA Today" praising him for his role, stating that Page "manages to be both cruelly callous and likable" and gives "one of the most complex, disturbing and haunting performances of the year". For the role, he won the Austin Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress in 2006, among other awards and nominations. Also in 2005, he starred in the British film "Mouth to Mouth". In 2006, Page appeared in "" (2006) as Kitty Pryde, a girl who can walk through walls. In the previous X-Men movies, the part had been used in brief cameos played by other actors, but never as a main character. The film was a commercial success.


title: Elliot Page

text: In 2007, he had his widespread breakthrough for his leading role as the title character in the coming-of-age comedy-drama film "Juno". A critical and financial success, the film was widely considered to be one of the best of the 2000s, and Page's performance earned him critical acclaim. Film critic A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" described him as "frighteningly talented" and Roger Ebert said, "Has there been a better performance this year than [Page's] creation of Juno? I do not think so". For his performance, Page was nominated for several awards, including an Academy Award for Best Actress, a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, a Critics' Choice Award for Best Actress, a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress — Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. He also won a Canadian Comedy Award, an Independent Spirit Award, and a Satellite Award for the role, as well as numerous critics awards, including Detroit Film Critics Society, Austin Film Critics Association and Florida Film Critics Circle. Also in 2007, he appeared in "The Stone Angel", and led the films "An American Crime" and "The Tracey Fragments", the latter of which also earned him critical acclaim, with the "Boston Herald" writing that "It is also a further reminder that Page is the real thing. But we knew that already". He won the Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress in a Canadian Film, among other accolades.


title: Elliot Page

text: In 2008, Page co-starred in the comedy-drama film "Smart People", which premiered in January that year at the Sundance Film Festival, and received a mixed response from critics. In the film, he played the overachieving daughter of a college professor. On March 1, 2008, Page hosted "Saturday Night Live". On May 3, 2009, he guest starred in "Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh", an episode of "The Simpsons", as the character Alaska Nebraska, a parody of Hannah Montana. In September 2009, he starred in Drew Barrymore's directorial debut, "Whip It", as a member of a roller derby team. The film premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and had its wide release on October 2, 2009.


title: Elliot Page

text: In August 2009, Page was cast in the big-budget Christopher Nolan thriller "Inception", which began filming the same year. The film was released on July 16, 2010, and was a commercial success. It received widespread acclaim from critics, being hailed as one of the best films of the 2010s. The cast, including Page, earned several accolades, with Page earning nominations from the Saturn Awards and the MTV Awards. He also starred in the 2010 film "Super", which he accepted after seeing the script for the film. The film received mixed reviews, though Page was praised for his performance. In January 2010, Page began appearing in a series of advertisements for Cisco Systems, including commercials set in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. That April, the Michael Lander film "Peacock" featured Page as Maggie Bailey, a struggling young mother. Page noted the film as "one of the boldest screenplays I've come across in my albeit short career; it's a character and story I can throw myself into and exactly the type of movie I love to be a part of".


title: Elliot Page

text: In April 2011, it was announced that Page would co-star as Monica in the Woody Allen film "To Rome with Love", a film told in four separate vignettes; the film was released in 2012. In June 2012, Quantic Dream announced the video game "" in which Page portrays one of the protagonists, Jodie Holmes; it was released on October 8, 2013, in North America. The game polarized critics, but Page earned praise for his performance, with GamesTM calling it "truly breathtaking [...] one of the truly great videogame acting showcases". He was given various awards and nominations for the role, including the British Academy Games Award for Best Performer. In 2013, Page stated that his directorial debut would be "Miss Stevens", and would star Anna Faris and be produced by Gary Gilbert, Jordan Horowitz and Doug Wald; the project eventually moved forward without Page, with scriptwriter Julia Hart replacing Page as the director. Also in 2013, he co-starred in Zal Batmanglij's thriller "The East", a film inspired by the experiences and drawing on thrillers from the 1970s, and he also starred in Lynn Shelton's "Touchy Feely". In 2014, Page reprised his role as Kitty Pryde in "" (2014). The film was a major box-office success, and received positive reviews from critics, being noted as one of the best films in the "X-Men" franchise. Page was praised for his performance and was nominated for the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Scene Stealer and the Kids' Choice Award for Female Action Star. In December 2014, Page portrayed Han Solo in a staged reading of "".


title: Elliot Page

text: In 2015, Page starred in and produced the film "Freeheld", about Laurel Hester, which was adapted from the 2007 short film of the same name. The film received a mixed response from critics, with review site Rotten Tomatoes writing that ""Freeheld" certainly means well, but its cardboard characters and by-the-numbers drama undermine its noble intentions". In 2016, Page co-starred in the Netflix film "Tallulah" as the eponymous character; the film marked his third collaboration with director Sian Heder, and his second collaboration with Allison Janney, both of whom he worked with on "Juno". In the film, his character is a young woman who abducts a baby and tries to pass it off as her own. On his acting, "The Guardian" wrote "...what grounds it are the terrific performances and Heder's rich direction and screenplay". In the same year, he appeared in the film "Window Horses" and provided the English voice of Rosy in the French film "My Life as a Zucchini," the latter of which earned critical acclaim and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.


title: Elliot Page

text: On November 9, 2017, it was announced that Page had been cast in the main role of Vanya/Viktor Hargreeves in the Netflix series "The Umbrella Academy". The show received positive reviews from critics, and Page was acclaimed for his performance, earning a Saturn Award nomination in 2019. After Page came out as transgender, it was revealed that he would continue his role in the show, with Netflix updating Page's name across the service. In March 2022, it was announced that Page's character would return in the upcoming third season and transition to male; the character briefly comes out to his siblings during "World's Biggest Ball of Twine". "Gizmodo" reported that the change "was very likely done to reflect Page's own transition".


title: Elliot Page

text: He headlined the science-fiction film "Flatliners", a remake of the 1990 film of the same name which was released in 2017, emerging as a commercial success. "Flatliners" was panned by critics, although Page and the ensemble cast were praised, with film critic Matt Zoller Seitz writing that "Luna and Page in particular make much stronger impressions than you might expect, given the repetitious and mostly shallow scenarios they're asked to enact ... But the choppy, cliched visuals and the script's superficial approach to the characters' predicaments ultimately undo any goodwill that the actors can generate." Also in 2017, he produced and starred in the film "The Cured".


title: Elliot Page

text: In 2019, Page starred in the Netflix miniseries "Tales of the City" as Shawna Hopkins, which received positive reviews. Page, along with Ian Daniel, directed and produced the documentary "There's Something in the Water", which is about environmental racism; the film premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, and was later released on Netflix on March 27, 2020. The film received positive reviews from critics, with "The Hollywood Reporter" writing that the film, while "made in a standard documentary format that includes a voiceover and a tad too much weepy music", "gets its job done directly enough, underlining a situation that remains dire despite what seems to be a growing level awareness around the country". Page will next have a voice role in the upcoming film "Naya Legend of the Golden Dolphin" and "Robodog".


title: Elliot Page

text: In August 2021, Page collaborated with Mark Rendall for a music release on Bandcamp. The three-track EP has been described as a "lo-fi bedroom pop adventure" in the press. In August 2021, he signed an overall deal with Universal Content Productions. In September 2021, Page launched a production company, Page Boy Productions, and appointed Matt Jordan Smith to serve as Head of Development and Production. In February 2022, it was announced that Flatiron Books had acquired the publishing rights to "Pageboy", a memoir written by Page, for $3 million, with the book set to release in 2023. In June 2022, Page revealed that he was writing a screenplay with his "Mouth to Mouth" co-star Beatrice Brown.


title: Elliot Page

text: On abortion rights, in 2008, Page described himself as a pro-choice feminist. He was one of 30 celebrities who participated in a 2008 online advertisement series for US Campaign for Burma, calling for an end to the military dictatorship in Myanmar. Page practices a vegan lifestyle, and PETA named him and Jared Leto the Sexiest Vegetarians of 2014. He is an atheist, having remarked that religion "has always been used for beautiful things, and also as a way to justify discrimination".


title: Elliot Page

text: On February 14, 2014, Page, who at that time presented as female, came out as gay during a speech at the Human Rights Campaign's "Time to Thrive" conference in Las Vegas. In November 2017, Page stated that he had been outed at age 18 by filmmaker Brett Ratner while on the set of "". His account was corroborated by co-star Anna Paquin, who said that she was present when Ratner made the comment. In a lengthy Facebook post, Page expressed gratitude towards people who spoke out against abuse, and expressed frustration at the pattern of those who continued to remain silent on such matters. In 2014, Page was included in "The Advocate"s annual "40 Under 40" list.


title: Elliot Page

text: In January 2018, Page announced that he and dancer/choreographer Emma Portner had married; they met after Page noticed Portner on Instagram. They separated in mid-2020, and Page filed for divorce in January 2021; it was finalized in early 2021.


title: Elliot Page

text: On December 1, 2020, Page came out as a trans man on his social media accounts, specified his pronouns as "he" and "they", and revealed his new name, Elliot. Page explained that his decision to speak openly about his gender identity was partially prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and partially by the anti-transgender rhetoric in politics and the news cycle. GLAAD spokesperson Nick Adams stated that Page "will now be an inspiration to countless trans and non-binary people". Page's then-wife, Emma Portner, expressed support for him coming out that same day on her Instagram account, saying she was "so proud" of Page. Netflix tweeted: "So proud of our superhero! We love you Elliot!" Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several celebrities, such as Ellen DeGeneres, Miley Cyrus, James Gunn, and Kumail Nanjiani, expressed support for Page after the announcement. That same day, Netflix announced that it would update Page's credits and metadata across all titles to reflect his name. These changes were completed by December 8.


title: Elliot Page

text: Page appeared on the cover of the March 29 / April 5, 2021 issue of "Time", making him the first openly trans man to do so. He requested that Wynne Neilly photograph him for the cover because he wanted another transgender person to be the photographer. In the featured article, he described himself as queer and non-binary, and revealed that at the time he came out, he had been recovering from undergoing top surgery, a process that he described as "life-saving". Page also revealed that at the age of nine, "I felt like a boy... I wanted to be a boy. I would ask my mom if I could be someday."


title: Elliot Page

text: For his performance in "Juno" (2007), Page received several awards and nominations in Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Actress categories, winning three Teen Choice Awards, a Canadian Comedy Award and a Satellite Award, as well as nominations for two British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), an Academy Award (Oscar) and a Golden Globe Award. His roles in the drama films "The Tracey Fragments" (2007) and "Freeheld" (2015), the sci-fi film "Inception" (2010), and the superhero works "" (2014) and "The Umbrella Academy" (2019–) earned him numerous accolades.


title: Elliot Page

text: Page hosted the television documentary series "Gaycation" (2016) alongside Ian Daniel, which earned him two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He additionally served as a voice and motion capture actor in the video game "" in 2013, garnering five award nominations, including a nomination for a British Academy Games Award for Performer in 2014.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Alia Bhatt (; born 15 March 1993) is a British actress of Indian descent who predominantly works in Hindi films. She has received several accolades including four Filmfare Awards. One of India's highest-paid actresses, she has appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list since 2014 and was awarded the TIME100 Impact Award in 2022.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Born into the Bhatt family, she is the daughter of filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. After making her acting debut as a child in the 1999 thriller "Sangharsh", she played her first leading role in Karan Johar's teen film "Student of the Year" (2012). She won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a kidnapping victim in the road drama "Highway" (2014), and went on to establish herself with starring roles in several films produced by Johar's studio Dharma Productions, including the romances "2 States" (2014) and "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (2017), and the coming-of-age drama "Dear Zindagi" (2016).


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt won three Filmfare Awards for Best Actress for playing a Bihari migrant in the crime drama "Udta Punjab" (2016), an undercover spy in the thriller "Raazi" (2018), and the volatile girlfriend of an aspiring rapper in the musical drama "Gully Boy" (2019). Following two poorly received films, she gained praise for playing the titular role in the biopic "Gangubai Kathiawadi", had a brief role in the period film "RRR", and starred in the fantasy film "", all of which rank among the top-grossing Indian films of 2022.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: In addition to acting in films, Bhatt has launched her own line of clothing and handbags, and is the founder of the ecological initiative CoExist. She has sung seven of her film songs, including the single "Samjhawan Unplugged" in 2014. Bhatt is married to the actor Ranbir Kapoor, with whom she has a daughter.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Alia Bhatt was born on 15 March 1993 into the Bhatt family to Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt and actress Soni Razdan. Her father is of Gujarati descent and her mother is of Kashmiri Pandit and British German ancestry. She holds British citizenship. She has an elder sister, Shaheen, and two half-siblings, Pooja and Rahul Bhatt. Actor Emraan Hashmi and director Mohit Suri are her paternal cousins, while producer Mukesh Bhatt is her uncle. Bhatt was educated at the Jamnabai Narsee School but dropped out from her 12th to pursue a career in acting.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Describing her childhood, Bhatt has said, "I had a rather grounded and modest upbringing. I didn't get the pleasures that people assume I would've got because I am Mahesh Bhatt's daughter." Growing up, she did not share a close bond with her father; Razdan has said that she raised her children mostly as a single parent as her husband did not take much interest in their lives. Bhatt aspired to be an actress from a young age, and has said that she first realised it while rehearsing for the school choir in kindergarten. She soon began dance lessons at Shiamak Davar's institute. Her first acting role was at age five in her father's production venture "Sangharsh" (1999), in which she briefly played the younger version of Preity Zinta's character. Talking about her experience, Bhatt later said, "I don't remember much of the shoot. I would go to the sets only for the food".


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt had her first leading role in 2012 with Karan Johar's teen film "Student of the Year", alongside Sidharth Malhotra and Varun Dhawan. She auditioned alongside 500 girls and was cast after losing 16 kg. She played a sophisticated teenage girl involved in a love triangle. Anupama Chopra of "Hindustan Times" mentioned similarities between her character and Kareena Kapoor's role in Johar's "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham..." (2001), but noted that her performance was "without the killer attitude". Lisa Tsering of "The Hollywood Reporter" dismissed her as "a washout. Not only is she inelegant in the dance numbers, but her expressions are limited; and the digital retouching of her face throughout the film is a distraction". "Student of the Year" grossed at the box office, becoming a commercial success.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Dismayed by the critical response to "Student of the Year", Bhatt was keen to play a better role. She found it in Imtiaz Ali's road film "Highway" (2014), in which she starred as a lonely teenage girl who develops Stockholm syndrome after being abducted. She took diction lessons to improve her Hindi, and was challenged by the emotional and physical requirements of the part. Ali shot the film sequentially and several scenes were improvised on set based on Bhatt's reactions. She has said that several aspects of her character's journey mirrored her own, as it was the first time she experienced situations that were different from her own privileged upbringing. Ronnie Scheib of "Variety" took note of her "endearingly cockeyed perf" and commended her for "bringing an underlying sadness and wistful intelligence" to her part. The film underperformed at the box office, though Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and also gained a Best Actress nomination at the ceremony. She next appeared in Vikas Bahl's short film on women's safety, entitled "Going Home".


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Continuing her collaboration with Johar's company, Dharma Productions, Bhatt starred in the romantic films "2 States" and "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania" (both 2014). The former was an adaptation of Chetan Bhagat's , and is about two management students who have trouble convincing their parents of their relationship. For her role as a headstrong Tamil girl, she learnt to speak her lines in Tamil with help from a tutor. Shubhra Gupta of "The Indian Express" was appreciative of Bhatt, labelling her a "surprise" and "easy and fresh and natural". She played the titular Punjabi girl who has an affair before her wedding with a flirtatious Punjabi boy, Rakesh, in "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania", directed by Shashank Khaitan, which was described as a tribute to "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995) by Johar. Writing for "India Today", Rohit Khilnani thought that Bhatt had pitched in "one of her best performances so far", though Nandini Ramnath of "Mint" found her lacking in subtlety, writing that she was "more comfortable acting out her feelings through dialogue and actions". Both films were commercially successful, each earning over worldwide. Her accomplishments in 2014 established her career.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt reunited with Bahl for the romantic comedy "Shaandaar". Released in 2015, the film features Shahid Kapoor and Bhatt as insomniacs who fall in love during a destination wedding. Kunal Guha of "Mumbai Mirror" criticised the film and wrote that Bhatt "socks life into her character but fails to pump any into this film". "Shaandaar" did not perform well commercially. She began 2016 with a supporting role in Shakun Batra's ensemble drama "Kapoor & Sons", starring alongside Malhotra and Fawad Khan, which was a critical and commercial success.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt next took on the part of a poor Bihari migrant in "Udta Punjab" (2016), a crime drama about substance abuse from writer-director Abhishek Chaubey. The intense role marked a departure from the mostly light-hearted parts she had played before, and in preparation, she watched documentaries on drug abuse and learned to speak a Bihari dialect. The film generated controversy when the Central Board of Film Certification deemed that it represented Punjab in a negative light and demanded extensive censorship before its release. The Bombay High Court later cleared the film for exhibition with one scene cut. Bhatt's performance was critically acclaimed. Raja Sen of Rediff.com wrote that she "commits to her accent and deals with the film's most unsavoury section, and is stunning during an incendiary speech that elevates the entire film to a whole other level." Bhatt next played a troubled young woman who consults with a therapist (played by Shah Rukh Khan) in Gauri Shinde's coming-of-age film "Dear Zindagi" (2016). Writing for IndieWire, Anisha Jhaveri commended her for providing millennial angst with "a three-dimensionality". "Udta Punjab" and "Dear Zindagi" gained Bhatt awards attention; for the former, she won the Screen Award and the Filmfare Award for Best Actress, and for the latter, she received an additional Best Actress nomination at Filmfare.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: The series of successful films continued with Bhatt's next projectthe romantic comedy "Badrinath Ki Dulhania" (2017)which reunited her with Khaitan and Dhawan. It tells the story of an independent young woman (Bhatt) who refuses to conform to patriarchal expectations from her chauvinistic fiancée (Dhawan). Rachel Saltz of "The New York Times" took note of the film's statement on gender equality and wrote, "Without ever falling into the clichés of spunky Bollywood heroine, [Bhatt] effortlessly embodies that admirable thing: a modern woman." She received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress. Meghna Gulzar's espionage thriller "Raazi" (2018) starred Bhatt as Sehmat Khan, a Kashmiri spy married to a Pakistani army officer. Set during the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the film is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel "Calling Sehmat". Anna M. M. Vetticad of "Firstpost" found Bhatt to be "stupendous" in the role, adding that "the young star once again displaying the maturity and confidence of a veteran on camera". "Raazi" proved to be one of the highest-grossing female-led Hindi films, and its success led Box Office India to credit Bhatt as the most successful contemporary actress of Hindi cinema. She won another Best Actress award at Filmfare.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt launched her own production company named Eternal Sunshine Productions in early 2019. Her first appearance that year was opposite Ranveer Singh in Zoya Akhtar's "Gully Boy", a musical inspired by the life of the street rappers Divine and Naezy. She attended acting workshops to learn a ghetto dialect to enable her to improvise on set. The film premiered at the 69th Berlin International Film Festival. Writing for "Screen International", Lee Marshall opined that "it's Bhatt's sharp performance that carries most successfully the mix of wry humour, romance and social comment that "Gully Boy" essays". With global earnings of over , the film emerged as Bhatt's highest-grossing release to that point. "Gully Boy" won a record 13 Filmfare Awards, and Bhatt was awarded with her career's third Best Actress trophy.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: The ensemble period drama "Kalank" (2019) marked Bhatt's biggest-budget film to that point. Set in the 1940s prior to the partition of India, it featured Dhawan and her as star-crossed lovers. She watched the films "Mughal-e-Azam" (1960) and "Umrao Jaan" (1981) to learn the body language of women from the era; to better her Urdu-speaking skills, she watched the Pakistani television series "Zindagi Gulzar Hai". Shubhra Gupta bemoaned that she was "watchable, if increasingly, exasperatingly familiar". The film did not perform well at the box office. Bhatt next starred in "Sadak 2" (2020), a sequel to her father's crime film "Sadak" (1991), which due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India could not be released theatrically and instead streamed on Disney+ Hotstar. The death of Sushant Singh Rajput sparked a debate on nepotism in the Hindi film industry; his fans blamed Bhatt for being one of the beneficiaries of nepotism and for once speaking dismissively of Rajput on Johar's chat show "Koffee with Karan". This led to vote brigading on the film's trailer on YouTube, on which it became the second most-disliked video. The film received negative reviews, and Pallabi Dey Purkayastha of "The Times of India" dismissed Bhatt's performance "by her own high standards" to be "strictly average".


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt next starred as the titular prostitute in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's crime drama "Gangubai Kathiawadi" (2022), which premiered at the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival. In preparation, she studied the work of actress Meena Kumari, and watched films about prostitution such as "Mandi" (1983) and "Memoirs of a Geisha" (2005). Commenting on media speculation that she had been miscast in such an assertive part, Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV opined that "the actress puts all doubts to rest with a marvellously lively performance". Additionally, Stutee Ghosh of The Quint commended her for playing the part with a "rare mix of innocence and jaw clenching seething anger". It emerged as her third release to gross over worldwide. "The Guardian" featured her portrayal in their listing of the best big-screen performances of all time.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: In the same year, Bhatt took on a brief role in the Telugu-language period film "RRR", starring N.T. Rama Rao Jr. and Ram Charan. It emerged as the fourth highest-grossing Indian film of all time. She next starred as a victim of domestic abuse in the Netflix black comedy film "Darlings", which marked her first production venture under her company Eternal Sunshine Productions. Namrata Joshi found her to be "perfectly at home in the role of an ordinary Mumbai chawl girl". The film became the most watched Indian film globally in its opening weekend on Netflix. In her final release of 2022, Bhatt starred opposite Ranbir Kapoor in Ayan Mukerji's fantasy film "". The first part in a planned trilogy, the film took five years to film. Made on a production and marketing budget of around , the film is one of the most expensive Indian films. Simon Abrams of the TheWrap bemoaned that Bhatt had been underused in a poorly written part, and disliked her chemistry with Kapoor. It earned to rank as the highest-grossing Hindi film of 2022.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt will next reunite with Johar in his directorial, the romantic comedy "Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani", co-starring Ranveer Singh. Filming and release was delayed by a few months due to her pregnancy. Bhatt will also appear alongside Gal Gadot and Jamie Dornan in the Netflix spy film "Heart of Stone", which will mark her first Hollywood film release.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt has performed playback singing for the song "Sooha Saaha" in "Highway" (2014). A. R. Rahman, the composer of the film, invited her to his music school to undergo training. In 2014, she sang the unplugged version of the song "Samjhawan", for the composers Sharib-Toshi, in "Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania". In 2016, she sang an alternate version of the song "Ikk Kudi", for the soundtrack of "Udta Punjab", with her co-star Dosanjh.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt has performed on stage at the Filmfare, Screen and Stardust award ceremonies, and has also participated in a stage show in Hong Kong alongside Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra. In 2013, she performed at a charity event with Dhawan, Malhotra, Aditya Roy Kapur, Shraddha Kapoor and Huma Qureshi to raise funds for the flood-affected victims of Uttarakhand. In August 2016, she performed in various cities of America for the "Dream Team 2016" tour, alongside Johar, the actors Dhawan, Malhotra, Roy Kapur, Katrina Kaif, Parineeti Chopra, and the singer Badshah.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: In 2013, Bhatt took part in a campaign for PETA to raise awareness on homeless animals. In 2017, she launched an ecological initiative named CoExist to raise awareness about the welfare of street animals. The following year, she collaborated with Facebook Live for a campaign named Find Your Green, to campaign for environmentalism. Bhatt designed her own clothing brand for women in 2014 for the online fashion portal Jabong.com and in 2018, she launched her own line of handbags for VIP Industries. In 2022, she launched her own line of maternity wear, named Edamamma.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: In 2018, Bhatt began dating actor Ranbir Kapoor, her co-star in "Brahmāstra" (2022). She married him on 14 April 2022 in a private ceremony at their apartment in Mumbai. In November 2022, she gave birth to their daughter Raha.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: "Forbes Asia" has featured Bhatt in their 30 Under 30 list of 2017 and in their 100 Digital Stars list of 2020. She has appeared in "Forbes India" Celebrity 100 list since 2014, peaking at the eighth position in 2019. That year, the magazine estimated her annual income to be and listed her as the highest-paid actress in the country.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: In 2018 and 2019, the Indian edition of "GQ" featured her among the nation's 50 most influential young people and credited her for "striking a balance between big-budget, all-star blowouts and more script-oriented films". Bhatt was listed in first place in "The Times of India"s "50 Most Desirable Women" list of 2018. In the same year, the market research firm YouGov named her India's ninth most influential celebrity. The magazine "Femina" has featured her in listings of women achievers in 2019 and 2021. In 2022, she was ranked in the 97th position in "The Indian Express"s listing of the most powerful Indians. In the same year, "Time" magazine awarded her with the TIME100 Impact Award.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: Bhatt is also the celebrity endorser for a number of brands and products, including Coca-Cola, Garnier and Maybelline. Duff & Phelps estimated her brand value to be US$36.5 million, in 2019, the eighth-highest of Indian celebrities. She occupied the seventh and sixth positions in the next two years, respectively, and in 2022, she peaked in the fourth position, with a brand value of US$68.1 million.


title: Alia Bhatt

text: For her role in "Highway" (2014), Bhatt won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress. She also received the Filmfare Award for Best Actress for her roles in "Udta Punjab" (2016), "Raazi" (2018) and "Gully Boy" (2019).


title: Harry Potter

text: Harry Potter is a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry's struggle against Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic and subjugate all wizards and Muggles (non-magical people).


title: Harry Potter

text: The series was originally published in English by Bloomsbury in the United Kingdom and Scholastic Press in the United States. All versions around the world are printed by Grafica Veneta in Italy. A series of many genres, including fantasy, drama, coming-of-age fiction, and the British school story (which includes elements of mystery, thriller, adventure, horror, and romance), the world of "Harry Potter" explores numerous themes and includes many cultural meanings and references. According to Rowling, the main theme is death. Other major themes in the series include prejudice, corruption, and madness.


title: Harry Potter

text: Since the release of the first novel, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", on 26 June 1997, the books have found immense popularity, positive reviews, and commercial success worldwide. They have attracted a wide adult audience as well as younger readers and are often considered cornerstones of modern young adult literature. , the books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide, making them the best-selling book series in history, and have been translated into more than eighty languages. The last four books consecutively set records as the fastest-selling books in history, with the final instalment selling roughly 2.7 million copies in the United Kingdom and 8.3 million copies in the United States within twenty-four hours of its release.


title: Harry Potter

text: The original seven books were adapted into an eight-part namesake film series by Warner Bros. Pictures. In 2016, the total value of the "Harry Potter" franchise was estimated at $25 billion, making "Harry Potter" one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" is a play based on a story co-written by Rowling.


title: Harry Potter

text: The success of the books and films has allowed the "Harry Potter" franchise to expand with numerous derivative works, a travelling exhibition that premiered in Chicago in 2009, a studio tour in London that opened in 2012, a digital platform on which J. K. Rowling updates the series with new information and insight, and a pentalogy of spin-off films premiering in November 2016 with "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them", among many other developments. Themed attractions, collectively known as "The Wizarding World of Harry Potter", have been built at several Universal Parks & Resorts amusement parks around the world.


title: Harry Potter

text: The series follows the life of a boy named Harry Potter. In the first book, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", Harry lives in a cupboard under the stairs in the house of the Dursleys, his aunt, uncle and cousin. The Dursleys consider themselves perfectly normal, but at the age of eleven, Harry discovers that he is a wizard. He meets a half-giant named Hagrid who invites him to attend the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry learns that as a baby, his parents were murdered by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort. When Voldemort attempted to kill Harry, his curse rebounded and Harry survived with a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead.


title: Harry Potter

text: Harry becomes a student at Hogwarts and is sorted into Gryffindor House. He gains the friendship of Ron Weasley, a member of a large but poor wizarding family, and Hermione Granger, a witch of non-magical, or Muggle, parentage. Harry encounters the school's potions master, Severus Snape, who displays a dislike for him; the rich pure-blood Draco Malfoy whom he develops an enmity with; and the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Quirinus Quirrell, who turns out to be allied with Lord Voldemort. The first book concludes with Harry's confrontation with Voldemort, who, in his quest to regain a body, yearns to gain the power of the Philosopher's Stone, a substance that bestows everlasting life.


title: Harry Potter

text: "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" describes Harry's second year at Hogwarts. Students are attacked and petrified by an unknown creature; wizards of Muggle parentage are the primary targets. The attacks appear related to the Chamber of Secrets, a fifty-year-old mystery at the school. Harry discovers an ability to speak the snake language Parseltongue, which he learns is rare and associated with the Dark Arts. When Hermione is attacked, Harry and Ron uncover the chamber's secrets and enter it. Harry discovers that the chamber was opened by Ron's younger sister, Ginny Weasley, who was possessed by an old diary in her belongings. The memory of Tom Marvolo Riddle, Voldemort's younger self, resided inside the diary and unleashed the basilisk, an ancient monster that kills those who make direct eye contact. Harry draws the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, slays the basilisk and destroys the diary.


title: Harry Potter

text: In the third novel, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", Harry learns that he is targeted by Sirius Black, an escaped convict who allegedly assisted in his parents' murder. As Harry struggles with his reaction to the dementors – creatures guarding the school that feed on despair – he reaches out to Remus Lupin, a new professor who teaches him the Patronus charm. On a windy night, Ron is dragged by a black dog into the Shrieking Shack; Harry and Hermione follow. The dog is revealed to be Sirius Black. Lupin enters the shack and explains that Black was James Potter's best friend; he was framed by Peter Pettigrew, who hides as Ron's pet rat, Scabbers. As the full moon rises, Lupin transforms into a werewolf and bounds away; the group chase after him but are surrounded by dementors. They are saved by a mysterious figure who casts a stag Patronus. This is later revealed to be a future version of Harry, who traveled back in time with Hermione using the Time Turner. The duo help Sirius escape on a Hippogriff.


title: Harry Potter

text: In Harry's fourth year of school (detailed in "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"), he is unwillingly entered in the Triwizard Tournament, a contest between schools of witchcraft and wizardry. Harry is Hogwarts' second participant after Cedric Diggory, an unusual occurrence that causes his friends to distance themselves from him. He competes against schools Beauxbatons and Durmstrang with the help of the new Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody. Harry claims the Triwizard Cup with Cedric, but in doing so is teleported to a graveyard where Voldemort's supporters convene. Moody reveals himself be to Barty Crouch, Jr, a Death Eater. Harry manages to escape, but Cedric is killed and Voldemort is resurrected using Harry's blood.


title: Harry Potter

text: In the fifth book, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", the Ministry of Magic refuses to believe that Voldemort has returned. Dumbledore re-activates the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society to counter Voldemort; meanwhile, the Ministry appoints Dolores Umbridge as the High Inquisitor of Hogwarts. Umbridge bans the Defense Against the Dark Arts; in response, Hermione and Ron form "Dumbledore's Army", a secret group where Harry teaches what Umbridge forbids. Harry is punished for disobeying Umbridge, and dreams of a dark corridor in the Ministry of Magic. Near the end of the book, Harry falsely dreams of Sirius being tortured; he races to the Ministry where he faces Death Eaters. The Order of the Phoenix saves the teenagers' lives, but Sirius is killed. A prophecy concerning Harry and Voldemort is then revealed: one must die at the hands of the other.


title: Harry Potter

text: In the sixth book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", Snape teaches Defense Against the Dark Arts while Horace Slughorn becomes the Potions master. Harry finds an old textbook with annotations by the Half-Blood Prince, due to which he achieves success in Potions class. Harry also takes lessons with Dumbledore, viewing memories about the early life of Voldemort in a device called a Pensieve. Harry learns from a drunken Slughorn that he used to teach Tom Riddle, and that Voldemort divided his soul into pieces, creating a series of Horcruxes. Harry and Dumbledore travel to a distant lake to destroy a Horcrux; they succeed, but Dumbledore weakens. On their return, they find Draco Malfoy and Death Eaters attacking the school. The book ends with the killing of Dumbledore by Professor Snape, the titular Half-Blood Prince.


title: Harry Potter

text: In "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", the seventh novel in the series, Lord Voldemort gains control of the Ministry of Magic. Harry, Ron and Hermione learn about the Deathly Hallows, legendary items that lead to mastery over death. The group infiltrate the ministry, where they steal a locket Horcrux, and visit Godric's Hollow, where they are attacked by Nagini. A silver doe Patronus leads them to the Sword of Gryffindor, with which they destroy the locket. They steal a Horcrux from Gringotts and travel to Hogwarts, culminating in a battle with Death Eaters. Snape is killed by Voldemort out of paranoia, but lends Harry his memories before he dies. Harry learns that Snape was always loyal to Dumbledore, and that he himself is a Horcrux. Harry surrenders to Voldemort and dies. The defenders of Hogwarts continue to fight on; Harry is resurrected, faces Voldemort and kills him.


title: Harry Potter

text: An epilogue titled "Nineteen Years Later" describes the lives of the surviving characters and the impact of Voldemort's death. Harry and Ginny are married with three children, and Ron and Hermione are married with two children.


title: Harry Potter

text: The novels fall into the genre of fantasy literature, and qualify as a type of fantasy called "urban fantasy", "contemporary fantasy", or "low fantasy". They are mainly dramas, and maintain a fairly serious and dark tone throughout, though they do contain some notable instances of tragicomedy and black humour. In many respects, they are also examples of the "bildungsroman", or coming of age novel, and contain elements of mystery, adventure, horror, thriller, and romance. The books are also, in the words of Stephen King, "shrewd mystery tales", and each book is constructed in the manner of a Sherlock Holmes-style mystery adventure. The stories are told from a third person limited point of view with very few exceptions (such as the opening chapters of "Philosopher's Stone", "Goblet of Fire" and "Deathly Hallows" and the first two chapters of "Half-Blood Prince").


title: Harry Potter

text: The series can be considered part of the British children's boarding school genre, which includes Rudyard Kipling's "Stalky & Co.", Enid Blyton's "Malory Towers", "St. Clare's" and the "Naughtiest Girl" series, and Frank Richards's "Billy Bunter" novels: the "Harry Potter" books are predominantly set in Hogwarts, a fictional British boarding school for wizards, where the curriculum includes the use of magic. In this sense they are "in a direct line of descent from Thomas Hughes's "Tom Brown's School Days" and other Victorian and Edwardian novels of British public school life", though they are, as many note, more contemporary, grittier, darker, and more mature than the typical boarding school novel, addressing serious themes of death, love, loss, prejudice, coming-of-age, and the loss of innocence in a 1990s British setting.


title: Harry Potter

text: In "Harry Potter", Rowling juxtaposes the extraordinary against the ordinary. Her narrative features two worlds: a contemporary world inhabited by non-magical people called Muggles, and another featuring wizards. It differs from typical portal fantasy in that its magical elements stay grounded in the mundane. Paintings move and talk; books bite readers; letters shout messages; and maps show live journeys, making the wizarding world both exotic and familiar. This blend of realistic and romantic elements extends to Rowling's characters. Their names are often onomatopoeic: Malfoy is difficult, Filch unpleasant and Lupin a werewolf. Harry is ordinary and relatable, with down-to-earth features such as wearing broken glasses; the scholar Roni Natov terms him an "everychild". These elements serve to highlight Harry when he is heroic, making him both an everyman and a fairytale hero.


title: Harry Potter

text: Each of the seven books is set over the course of one school year. Harry struggles with the problems he encounters, and dealing with them often involves the need to violate some school rules. If students are caught breaking rules, they are often disciplined by Hogwarts professors. The stories reach their climax in the summer term, near or just after final exams, when events escalate far beyond in-school squabbles and struggles, and Harry must confront either Voldemort or one of his followers, the Death Eaters, with the stakes a matter of life and death – a point underlined, as the series progresses, by characters being killed in each of the final four books. In the aftermath, he learns important lessons through exposition and discussions with head teacher and mentor Albus Dumbledore. The only exception to this school-centred setting is the final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", in which Harry and his friends spend most of their time away from Hogwarts, and only return there to face Voldemort at the "dénouement".


title: Harry Potter

text: The "Harry Potter" stories feature imagery and motifs drawn from Arthurian myth and fairytales. Harry's ability to draw the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat resembles the Arthurian sword in the stone legend. His life with the Dursleys has been compared to Cinderella. Hogwarts resembles a medieval university-cum-castle with several professors who belong to an Order of Merlin; Old Professor Binns still lectures about the International Warlock Convention of 1289; and a real historical person, a 14th-century scribe, Sir Nicolas Flamel, is described as a holder of the Philosopher's Stone. Other medieval elements in Hogwarts include coats-of-arms and medieval weapons on the walls, letters written on parchment and sealed with wax, the Great Hall of Hogwarts which is similar to the Great Hall of Camelot, the use of Latin phrases, the tents put up for Quidditch tournaments are similar to the "marvellous tents" put up for knightly tournaments, imaginary animals like dragons and unicorns which exist around Hogwarts, and the banners with heraldic animals for the four Houses of Hogwarts.


title: Harry Potter

text: Many of the motifs of the Potter stories such as the hero's quest invoking objects that confer invisibility, magical animals and trees, a forest full of danger and the recognition of a character based upon scars are drawn from medieval French Arthurian romances. Other aspects borrowed from French Arthurian romances include the use of owls as messengers, werewolves as characters, and white deer. The American scholars Heather Arden and Kathrn Lorenz in particular argue that many aspects of the Potter stories are inspired by a 14th-century French Arthurian romance, "Claris et Laris", writing of the "startling" similarities between the adventures of Potter and the knight Claris. Arden and Lorenz noted that Rowling graduated from the University of Exeter in 1986 with a degree in French literature and spent a year living in France afterwards.


title: Harry Potter

text: Like C. S. Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Harry Potter" also contains Christian symbolism and allegory. The series has been viewed as a Christian moral fable in the psychomachia tradition, in which stand-ins for good and evil fight for supremacy over a person's soul. Children's literature critic Joy Farmer sees parallels between Harry and Jesus Christ. Comparing Rowling with Lewis, she argues that "magic is both authors' way of talking about spiritual reality". According to Maria Nikolajeva, Christian imagery is particularly strong in the final scenes of the series: Harry dies in self-sacrifice and Voldemort delivers an "ecce homo" speech, after which Harry is resurrected and defeats his enemy.


title: Harry Potter

text: Rowling stated that she did not reveal "Harry Potter"s religious parallels in the beginning because doing so would have "give[n] too much away to fans who might then see the parallels". In the final book of the series "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", Rowling makes the book's Christian imagery more explicit, quoting both and (King James Version) when Harry visits his parents' graves. Hermione Granger teaches Harry Potter that the meaning of these verses from the Christian Bible are "living beyond death. Living after death", which Rowling states "epitomize the whole series". Rowling also exhibits Christian values in developing Albus Dumbledore as a God-like character, the divine, trusted leader of the series, guiding the long-suffering hero along his quest. In the seventh novel, Harry speaks with and questions the deceased Dumbledore much like a person of faith would talk to and question God.


title: Harry Potter

text: "Harry Potter" overarching theme is death. In the first book, when Harry looks into the Mirror of Erised, he feels both joy and "a terrible sadness" at seeing his desire: his parents, alive and with him. Confronting their loss is central to Harry's character arc and manifests in different ways through the series, such as in his struggles with Dementors. Other characters in Harry's life die; he even faces his own death in "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". The series has an existential perspective – Harry must grow mature enough to accept death. In Harry's world, death is not binary but mutable, a state that exists in degrees. Unlike Voldemort, who evades death by separating and hiding his soul in seven parts, Harry's soul is whole, nourished by friendship and love.


title: Harry Potter

text: Love distinguishes Harry and Voldemort. Harry is a hero because he loves others, even willing to accept death to save them; Voldemort is a villain because he does not. Harry carries the protection of his mother's sacrifice in his blood; Voldemort, who wants Harry's blood and the protection it carries, does not understand that love vanquishes death.


title: Harry Potter

text: Rowling has spoken about thematising death and loss in the series. Soon after she started writing "Philosopher's Stone", her mother died; she said that "I really think from that moment on, death became a central, if not the central theme of the seven books". Rowling has described Harry as "the prism through which I view death", and further stated that "all of my characters are defined by their attitude to death and the possibility of death".


title: Harry Potter

text: While "Harry Potter" can be viewed as a story about good vs. evil, its moral divisions are not absolute. First impressions of characters are often misleading. Harry assumes in the first book that Quirrell is on the side of good because he opposes Snape, who appears to be malicious; in reality, Quirrell is an agent of Voldemort, while Snape is loyal to Dumbledore. This pattern later recurs with Moody and Snape. In Rowling's world, good and evil are choices rather than inherent attributes: second chances and the possibility of redemption are key themes of the series. This is reflected in Harry's self-doubts after learning his connections to Voldemort, such as Parseltongue; and prominently in Snape's characterisation, which has been described as complex and multifaceted. In some scholars' view, while Rowling's narrative appears on the surface to be about Harry, her focus may actually be on Snape's morality and character arc.


title: Harry Potter

text: Rowling said that, to her, the moral significance of the tales seems "blindingly obvious". In the fourth book, Dumbledore speaks of a "choice between what is right and what is easy"; Rowling views this as a key theme, "because that ... is how tyranny is started, with people being apathetic and taking the easy route and suddenly finding themselves in deep trouble".


title: Harry Potter

text: Academics and journalists have developed many other interpretations of themes in the books, some more complex than others, and some including political subtexts. Themes such as normality, oppression, survival, and overcoming imposing odds have all been considered as prevalent throughout the series. Similarly, the theme of making one's way through adolescence and "going over one's most harrowing ordeals – and thus coming to terms with them" has also been considered. Rowling has stated that the books comprise "a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry" and that they also pass on a message to "question authority and... not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth".


title: Harry Potter

text: In 1990, Rowling was on a crowded train from Manchester to London when the idea for Harry suddenly "fell into her head". Rowling gives an account of the experience on her website saying:


title: Harry Potter

text: Rowling completed "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" in 1995 and the manuscript was sent off to several prospective agents. The second agent she tried, Christopher Little, offered to represent her and sent the manuscript to several publishers.


title: Harry Potter

text: After twelve other publishers had rejected "Philosopher's Stone", Bloomsbury agreed to publish the book. Despite Rowling's statement that she did not have any particular age group in mind when beginning to write the "Harry Potter" books, the publishers initially targeted children aged nine to eleven. On the eve of publishing, Rowling was asked by her publishers to adopt a more gender-neutral pen name in order to appeal to the male members of this age group, fearing that they would not be interested in reading a novel they knew to be written by a woman. She elected to use J. K. Rowling (Joanne Kathleen Rowling), using her grandmother's name as her second name because she has no middle name.


title: Harry Potter

text: "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" was published by Bloomsbury, the publisher of all "Harry Potter" books in the United Kingdom, on 26 June 1997. It was released in the United States on 1 September 1998 by Scholastic – the American publisher of the books – as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone", after the American rights sold for US$105,000 – a record amount for a children's book by an unknown author. Scholastic feared that American readers would not associate the word "philosopher" with magic, and Rowling suggested the title "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" for the American market. Rowling has later said that she regrets the change.


title: Harry Potter

text: The second book, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", was originally published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999. "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" was published a year later in the UK on 8 July 1999 and in the US on 8 September 1999. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" was published on 8 July 2000 at the same time by Bloomsbury and Scholastic. "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" is the longest book in the series, at 766 pages in the UK version and 870 pages in the US version. It was published worldwide in English on 21 June 2003. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was published on 16 July 2005. The seventh and final novel, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows", was published on 21 July 2007. Rowling herself has stated that the last chapter of the final book (in fact, the epilogue) was completed "in something like 1990".


title: Harry Potter

text: Rowling retained rights to digital editions and released them on the Pottermore website in 2012. Vendors such as Amazon displayed the ebooks in the form of links to Pottermore, which controlled pricing. All seven "Harry Potter" books have been released in unabridged audiobook versions, with Stephen Fry reading the UK editions and Jim Dale voicing the series for the American editions.


title: Harry Potter

text: The series has been translated into more than 80 languages, placing Rowling among the most translated authors in history. The books have seen translations to diverse languages such as Korean, Armenian, Ukrainian, Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Bengali, Bulgarian, Welsh, Afrikaans, Albanian, Latvian, Vietnamese and Hawaiian. The first volume has been translated into Latin and even Ancient Greek, making it the longest published work in Ancient Greek since the novels of Heliodorus of Emesa in the 3rd century AD. The second volume has also been translated into Latin.


title: Harry Potter

text: Some of the translators hired to work on the books were well-known authors before their work on "Harry Potter", such as Viktor Golyshev, who oversaw the Russian translation of the series' fifth book. The Turkish translation of books two to seven was undertaken by Sevin Okyay, a popular literary critic and cultural commentator. For reasons of secrecy, translation on a given book could only start after it had been released in English, leading to a lag of several months before the translations were available. This led to more and more copies of the English editions being sold to impatient fans in non-English speaking countries; for example, such was the clamour to read the fifth book that its English language edition became the first English-language book ever to top the best-seller list in France.


title: Harry Potter

text: The United States editions were adapted into American English to make them more understandable to a young American audience.


title: Harry Potter

text: For cover art, Bloomsbury chose painted art in a classic style of design, with the first cover a watercolour and pencil drawing by illustrator Thomas Taylor showing Harry boarding the Hogwarts Express, and a title in the font Cochin Bold. The first releases of the successive books in the series followed in the same style but somewhat more realistic, illustrating scenes from the books. These covers were created by first Cliff Wright and then Jason Cockroft.


title: Harry Potter

text: Due to the appeal of the books among an adult audience, Bloomsbury commissioned a second line of editions in an 'adult' style. These initially used black-and-white photographic art for the covers showing objects from the books (including a very American Hogwarts Express) without depicting people, but later shifted to partial colourisation with a picture of Slytherin's locket on the cover of the final book.


title: Harry Potter

text: International and later editions have been created by a range of designers, including Mary GrandPré for U.S. audiences and Mika Launis in Finland. For a later American release, Kazu Kibuishi created covers in a somewhat anime-influenced style.


title: Harry Potter

text: The popularity of the "Harry Potter" series has translated into substantial financial success for Rowling, her publishers, and other "Harry Potter" related license holders. This success has made Rowling the first and thus far only billionaire author. The books have sold more than 500 million copies worldwide and have also given rise to the popular film adaptations produced by Warner Bros., all of which have been highly successful in their own right. The total revenue from the book sales is estimated to be around $7.7 billion. The first novel in the series, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the bestselling books in history. The films have in turn spawned eight video games and have led to the licensing of more than 400 additional "Harry Potter" products. The "Harry Potter" brand has been estimated to be worth as much as $25 billion.