Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West.
He was born in San Francisco, California, and lived between the years 1902 and 1984. During his life, he helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favoured sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph.
For more images and information about Adams click the link below.
The photo was taken from a vantage point known as the Diving Board, a rock section that drapes 3,500 feet over the valley floor. Adams had been looking for a perspective on the Half Dome that likewise passed on his feeling of marvel. When he arrived at the Diving Board, Adams had just two glass plate negatives left in his bag. The first of the two was uncovered with a yellow channel that he knew would obscure the sky somewhat. With the second, Adams utilized a dull red channel that fundamentally obscured the sky and consequently underlined the white snow and sparkling rock of the half dome.
Juxtaposition is an act of placing two elements close together or side by side. This is often done in order to compare/contrast the two, to show similarities or differences.
The two original images were taken from different angles but had the same main subject. This meant that I could juxtapose them together even though they were taken from different angles. My outcome is of the newer, colorful Beauport Bay with the older, black and white image of the Bay in the center. The newer image is 2-3 years old and the older one is roughly 70 years old so it brings a good idea of compare and contrast to the image.
Where – This photoshoot will be taken around Hautlieu and highlands.
What- I will be taking photographs of buildings and some 2D walls etc.
When- I will be doing this photo-shoot in the day time with the most light I could use.
How- This photos are taken head hight with the camera facing dead straight or angling upwards to windows and trees. The camera settings are such as- exposure – 80 – IOS – 400
Why- I am taking this photoshoot to capture some images to relate to the new topographic idea of photographs.
Contact sheets
Edits
First of all , I started off with heightening the exposure level as well as creating more contrast with the blacks found in the lines of the buildings. Next I changed the dehaze amount in the image to make the image look more interesting to look at. The shine on the vents I make more clear but enough to look natural. The contrast and exposure within the clouds I have changed to look more exciting and natural.
Outcomes
Evaluation
The outcome of these images relate to Lewis Baltz photography style. This is because he bases his work on 2D subjects such as walls of buildings, door ways, corner of buildings and most of his work is based in black and white. As for some of my work turning out to be better based in colour, some images such as the door ways are edited to black and white which links to Lewis’ style. The contrast in my images are high to express where the strong shadows are formed and where the highlights can be seen. Building seem to have a wide range of lines and shapes to be captured within the walls and windows. This makes a really nice 2D surface to photograph as edges and flat surfaces can be completely different shades to each other. If I was to do this photo-shoot again I would explore some more interesting areas to photograph such as town or bigger buildings such as a block of flats.
I took photos around the school area and around Highlands. I tried to find the best buildings that would fit in the new topographics photography area. This includes trying to find buildings that have loads of simple lines and outlines on them, mainly a boxy shape and a range of dark and light colours on them to show sharp contrast.
contact sheets;
my favourite images edited-
I really like how my images turned out. I tried to photograph simple sides of buildings that have many square shapes and simple outline to make the buildings fit perfectly into the new topographics theme. When I started to edit my images on light room I was inspired by Ansel Adams contrast pallet. His urban photography is filled with a variety of different black and white shades that make the contrast between white,grey and black extremely sharp. I wanted my images to contain all the different shades from loads of grey areas to very sharp areas of white and black around the images. I think I achieved this well by changing up the shadows and highlights until they matched perfectly together.
When it came to selecting my images I wanted them all to fit into one group therefore I picked the ones I thought worked the best together when presented one by one next to eachother.
Eugène Atget was an French photographer who took images of the rapid disappearing and elements changing of Paris during the 19th century, best known for his photographs of the architecture and streets of Paris.
He began his career as a commercial photographer. Atget’s clients were primarily painters and sculptors which he produced images of architectural details, doorways, and antiques. He searched for abandoned gardens or empty courtyards for his subject matter.
I will be taking the photos and do not need any models as I will be focusing on the landscape.
What
Coble streets and old buildings.
Why
Eugène Atget photos are of the old paris streets and these photos will look similar to them.
Where
Location 1: Old street behind the Museum. Location 2: Old street in St Aubins.
When
I’ll go during the day so that there natural lighting because I want my photos to show the streets in detail.
How
I will be taking them from eye-level.
Contact Sheet
When taking these photos I was focusing on the shapes created with the buildings, doors and walls in the photo and tried to make the subject (mainly the big doors) the focal point. To develop these further I will be adjusting the images to make them look older and more part of the 19th century like Eugène Atget photos.
The New Topographics are photographs of a man-altered landscape with the exhibition which includes the work of 10 photographers from the original show: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel. Inspired by The New Topographics my class decided to walk around the school and highlands college taking photos of the buildings and urban influenced building structures.
Landscape photography shows spaces in the world, potentially vast and empty, but other times microscopic. Landscape photographs capture the presence of nature but can also show man-made features engrossing on nature.
What is Rural Photography?
Rural Photography is similar to landscape photography but it captures life in the countryside and life living in a rural environment compared to an urban area.
Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist. Adams was born on February 20th 1902 and died on April 22nd 1984. Some of Adams most influential and well known work was his black and white photos of the American West. Adams was one of the founders of a group known as Group f/64 which is an association of photographers who were responsible for photography that utilized sharp focus and the full tonal range.
Adams developed an exact system of image making known as the Zone System with his friend, Fred Archer. Archer was another aspiring photographer who was interested in portrait photography and before his death in 1963 took portrait photography of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars of the time.
The zone system was a method of understanding what tonal range was going to be captured when taking the photo. He knew what parts of the image would be the lightest and which would be the darkest. This helped him work out what the final image’s contrast would be like.
Ansel Adams Zone System
As you can see above, Ansel Adams used his Zone System to work out what tones would be represented in the different parts of the image and which would be darker or lighter. By doing this he made sure the images would all have a distinguishable contrast with dark and light and would create drama that would make his images so much better than other images taken at the time. The reason Ansel Adam’s images were so much better than others taken at the time is all to do with his reasoning behind taking the images. At first he took them without thinking about what he was actually taking and then he saw the image he wanted to take in his mind’s eye. He then experimented with exposures and used his zone system to see what his image would be like after he developed the image.
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and musical movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and was most commonly found from 1800 to 1850.
Photo-shoot plan
To take the photos for landscape, rural and romanticism I will photograph a beach in Jersey. I will photograph the waves, beach and rocks from different angles. I want to take photos like Ansel Adams and photograph water in motion and maybe in black and white to show the real tonal contrast between the brightest and darkest tones in the image.
Photo-shoot
Ansel Adams inspired edits
To get the images above, I went through my photos from the contact sheets and found the best ones. I then used Adobe Light room to edit the images in mass so that they all represented Ansel Adams’ work.
My Final Image
The reason I chose the image above as my best/ favourite image is that it reflects Ansel Adams ideas about the tonal system and how the contrast between dark and light brings power to the image. The image is of a rocky outcrop and I made it black and white and edited it so that the clouds to the left are darker and bring tonal contrast.
“New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape“
New topographics was a term created by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose photos had similar banal aesthetic, in that way they were formal, principally black and white prints of the urban landscape.
It was created to highlight the fact that the usual landscape photography which showed the beauty of nature without any human disruption was fake. So, photographers went out and started taking pictures of things that were man made with the usual natural landscape in it, just not as the main feature.It allowed people to understand that humans and nature can live in harmony, without destroying views etc.
In the 1970s, cars were being used by more people.As a result of this, more roads,car parks and petrol stations were being created which meant that fields were being covered with concrete which some people saw as an eyesore.
John Schott
Robert Adams
Frank Gohlke
Frank Gohlke (born April 3, 1942) is an American landscape photographer. Gohlke′s photographs have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Cleveland Museum of Art; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts; the Amon Carter Museum; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. In 1975, he was included in the influential exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape, organized by the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House. His photographs are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House; the Canadian Center for Architecture; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Amon Carter Museum; and the Walker Art Center.
Grain Elevator and Lightning Flash, Lamesa, Texas, 1975
This image by Gohlke is a good example of New Topographics. The image includes the industrial side of Texas, however you can see a lightning bold in the top right hand corner of the image. Some could say that its nature reminding people it is still there. However, some could say that no matter what we put onto this earth, nature will almost always be present.
