1941-46
1941
Hired by the Interior Department to photograph national parks and monuments.
Developed the Zone System of exposure.
Photographed Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico.
1943
Photographed at Manzanar War Relocation Center.
1944
Exhibited his photographs at the Manzanar Relocation Center.
Produced a book entitled Born Free and Equal, Photographs of the Loyal Japanese-Americans at Manzanar Relocation Center, Inyo County, California. The book contains sixty-six illustrations. Most of these photographs are held by the Library of Congress.
Manzanar, an exhibition of sixty-one prints by Ansel Adams, opened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
1946
Awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.