American Experience

Stories to Go Listen to a podcast featuring nature and wilderness photographer Michael Frye, who describes following in Ansel Adams' footsteps, working in Yosemite National Park. Art or Document? Is photography a fine art, equivalent to the other visual arts, or a documentary tool, best suited for recording the facts? Sample the debate, in these quotes from nearly 150 years of photographic history, and tell us what you think in this online poll. Inside a View Camera Ansel Adams used a view camera to create his iconic photographs of American landscapes. How does it work? Find out in this interactive feature. On TV Monday: Ansel Adams From the day that a 14-year-old Ansel Adams first saw the transcendent beauty of the Yosemite Valley, his life was, in his words, "colored and modulated by the great earth-gesture of the Sierra." Few American photographers have reached a wider audience than Adams, and none has had more impact on how Americans grasp the majesty of their continent. In this elegant, moving and lyrical portrait of the most eloquent and quintessentially American of photographers, producer Ric Burns seeks to explore the meaning and legacy of Adams' life and work. At the heart of the film are the great themes that absorbed Adams throughout his career: the beauty and fragility of "the American earth," the inseparable bond of man and nature, and the moral obligation the present owes to the future. THE PRESIDENTS Online. On TV. On the Go. How do you end a war? Can the President abuse his power? When is it okay to lie? What do you think? Log on to THE PRESIDENTS Online and watch film clips from the biographies of seven 20th century presidents: FDR, Truman, LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Reagan, and coming in May, George H.W. Bush. Then, register for free to participate in the online discussion, and read comments from fellow viewers. Make sure your voice is heard on Election Day Still need to register to vote in your state's spring primary or the general election? Just visit the League of Women Voters' elections website, VOTE411.org, to get started. Features include the only nationwide polling place locator, an online registration tool, important deadlines, absentee and overseas ballot information, candidate information, and specific details about voting in your state.