UCLA then and now: In the footsteps of Ansel Adams

Fifty years ago, a bearded man with a Hasselblad stood on UCLA’s North Campus, his camera pointed at the new sculpture garden and the unfinished arts building. As the official photographer selected to carry out “Fiat Lux,” an ambitious project to chronicle the University of California system in photos, Ansel Adams cataloged more than 200 negatives of UCLA dated between 1964 and 1967, with the bulk of the work in fall 1966. Most of the time he worked alone, relying on natural light and spending a lot of time on hillsides and tops of buildings.

 

In capturing changes to the campus over half a century, California photographer Kevin Cooley returns to the same sites and shoots them from Adams' perspective.

 

So has the campus changed much from what Adams saw in his viewfinder? See for yourself in this UCLA Magazine story.