Pictorial convergence

TWENTY-TWO years after his death and four years after his centennial, photographer Ansel Adams is getting as much museum attention as ever. Maybe more.

Four Southern California museums have shows up or coming in which Adams’ images play central or key supporting roles.

At the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles through Feb. 18, there’s “Ansel Adams at Manzanar,” a collection of about 50 vintage prints from the photographer’s four visits to the Manzanar internment camp in 1943 and 1944. Unlike his most famous works, most of these images concentrate not on landscapes but on people -- some of the 10,000 Japanese Americans held captive within the Owens Valley camp during World War II. Meanwhile, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana plans to open a new wing with “Ansel Adams: Classic Images,” which includes the photographer’s favorite 75 shots. That show will run Feb. 18 to May 13.

At the Museum of the American West (formerly the Autry) in Griffith Park, curators have include several of Adams’ Yosemite photos in a broad survey titled “Yosemite: Art of an American Icon.” The portion of the show that includes Adams’ work and traces park imagery through 1969 closes Jan. 21. Another part featuring more recent paintings and other images will stay up through April 22.

In Pasadena, the Norton Simon Museum’s “The Collectible Moment” exhibition, a survey of the museum’s photographic holdings, includes Adams’ famous “Moonrise, Hernandez, N.M.”

-- Christopher Reynolds