Through exquisite black and white photographs, Ansel Adams opened our eyes to the beauty of the American West and he worked to preserve its vast spaces. He believed that art and environmental activism should intertwine, that landscape photography should flow from a deep empathy for the land itself.

Legions of photographers have since followed Adams' path through the West's grand photographic terrain. But photographer and radio producer Guy Hand explains some of them have forgotten what was most important to Adams: empathy for nature.