Having worked for the United States Postal Service for 17 years, Ansel Embry had seen plenty of new designs for stamps come and go.
But when a new sheet of stamps was released earlier this year, the design was a little more personal. The sheet featured 16 photographs by Embry’s namesake, Ansel Adams, recognizing Adams as one of the most influential photographers of the 20th century.
“It was one of those things I wasn’t expecting,” Embry told The Dispatch Thursday. “And then out of the blue here come these stamps in the post office. … And everybody was like ‘hey, look, it’s you!’”
Adams lived between 1902-1984. He was best known for his landscape photography, which focused on pieces of untouched wilderness, especially in the national parks and other areas of the American West.
Adams’ work was influential on both the photography and conservation movements of his day. By 1980, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Jimmy Carter for his work, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Embry said his father, David, picked up photography while he was in the Air Force and stationed in South Korea. His father took personal inspiration from Adams’ work, he said.
“He really loved the work that Ansel Adams did,” Embry said. “When he got out of the Air Force, he started his own little photography studio. And he did that for a couple of years before he decided he wasn’t making enough money to make ends meet.”
While Embry’s father stopped taking photographs professionally, instead joining the Navy and serving there for another 20 years, he never lost his love of the camera. When his son was born, he named him after Adams.
Later, when Embry was a teenager, his father was restationed from Virginia Beach to California. On trips between the two places, Embry said, he and his father visited many of the places Adams had photographed, including the Rocky Mountains, the Great Tetons Mountain, and Yosemite. Seeing the places Adams had photographed himself gave Embry a greater appreciation of both the photographer and the natural world.
“I’m very happy that he did what he did, and brought attention to the natural areas of the United States that people may not have otherwise really paid attention to,” Embry said. “And I’ve been to a lot of those places that he took pictures of.”
When Embry was old enough, he started considering working for USPS, as he heard that it paid well. But, not knowing how to get into that kind of role at the time, he instead followed his father’s footsteps and joined the Navy, he said.
Embry served in the Navy from 1991 to 2003. For about half of his service, he worked on a submarine, while for the other half, he became an instructor. Being in the Navy allowed Embry to travel even more, going to every continent except Australia and Antarctica.
While Embry and his father have shared Adams’ photography and love of nature over the years, Embry said he has not kept up the hobby himself, instead preferring carpentry, plumbing and other hands-on skills that he learned in the Navy.
After leaving the military, Embry worked at a nuclear power plant for a few years before moving to Tennessee, where he joined USPS as a mail carrier in 2007.
“I like the interactions with people,” Embry said. “Working the window and having interactions with people. Before I came here, I was a mail carrier, and I interacted with a whole lot of people on my mail route.”
Working for USPS also allowed Embry to travel more. He moved every few years for work, until he finally settled in Columbus about three years ago, where he intends to stay.
Over the years, working as a mail carrier became more physically difficult for Embry, as health issues affecting his feet meant he had a harder time working in the truck.
Instead, he transferred to work behind the counter at the Columbus branches of the post office, where he was when he saw the black and white stamp sheet for the first time, featuring the same photos and sights he had shared with his father throughout his life.
The Ansel Adams Stamps were first issued on May 15. They are Forever stamps, meaning they can be used to mail a one-ounce letter at any time, regardless of when the stamps are purchased or how the prices change over time.
“I thought it was pretty cool and everything,” Embry said. “Of course, I went and got some, and then I called my dad, and I said ‘hey, they’re coming out with this set of stamps.’ So my dad ran out and bought a whole bunch of them.”
Embry said he is not planning on using the stamps, instead keeping them as a collectors’ item. He hopes to preserve the stamps for years to come. He also hopes to work for the Post Office until he retires, he said.
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