Romanticism was a particular movement in art that occurred during the first half of the 19th century. Romanticism placed particular emphasis on emotion, horror, awe , terror and individualism, along with a glorification of the past. Painters, poets, photographers and writers drew particular inspiration from nature and celebrated the purity of nature. Emotion and feeling were central in how it should be read. Looking back to these images from our point in time, we see romanticism is linked as a response to the industrialisation of the world. The whole of the Western world was transforming, at what people at the time saw at an impossible speed, away from the agrarian past to one of mechanisation. Romanticism as a movement came to and end when realism emerged in the late 1840s.

Romanticism was also used in many of the other art forms. It was used in art in the early nineteenth century to describe the movement in art and literature distinguished by a new interest in human psychology, expression of personal feeling and interest in the natural world. The overall characteristic was a new emotionalism in contrast to the ideas of classical restraint. Romanticism celebrated the individual imagination and intuition in the search for individual rights and liberty. Its ideals of the creative, subjective powers of the artist fueled avant-garde movements well into the 20^th century. The most common way artists would express romanticism in art form was through paintings.

Ansel Easton Adams (born in 1902 – 1984) was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. These black and white images had high tonal range which emphasized the landscape to loo unnatural and intriguing. His love for nature and the earth in general is what started off Ansel’s career. He had an eye, a vision of what he exactly wanted his photographs to look like when visiting an area of either West Americas mountain ranges or the vast landscape in the countryside. Here are some examples of Ansels work…

As we can see, Ansel Adams loves to use a lower exposure camera setting for most of his photography. This creates an effect of his images looking like they are taken at night. They seem to be all photographed at the same mountain range but different angles as well as some flat surfaces with some abstract shapes and tonal range in the skies. They all have a similar style to them but all seem to have something as an objective. Either that being a tree, rock, mountain or lake, they all relate to each other somehow. Especially that they are taken in black and white.

Analysis

In this particular image at first glance the noticeable peaks of mountains captures my eye as for the contrast in the snowy white tips to darkness that falls half way down. As well as this, the striking river that seems to flow in an S shape has a bright, outstanding white glimmer to it. The harsh light source from the sun above and the fact that this picture has been taken in black and white has made this river of water over exposed as it appears to be the same brightness as the sun which is positioned outside the image, the top middle of the frame. Different shades of grey make up the trees surrounding the river that weaves in and out. Its almost as if its a source that leads out to the mountains, a path like way. Mist seems to overcast the mountains and tops of trees in the near distance. We can see this because of how the image is formed. The white dust that subtly over-layers the darker shades of grey. The growth of the mountains seems intriguing as from the side of the photographs, the mountains grown to a single, unstable peek. This peak seems to be rough but kinda grows out of the images view. This really emphasizes the height and bigness of these landmarks in West America. The trees in the foreground closest to the left side of the image carefully lines up with the lining of the bottom of the mountains. This creates a tonal range of dark to light, black to white and makes it much more easier to examine the mist. Dotted and light clouds are positioned in the sky that seem bearable to notice. The way Ansel has set his exposure, he has made a darker and shaded sky in the fr left and right top corners. This effect makes the image as if it was taken in the night. Whereas is was indeed not, as for the lighting needed to even view the landscape in daytime. The dark and shaded parts of this image overalls the white highlights. The darkened areas seem to fall mostly from the bottom, and stretching upwards to light and brightness. The river seems to be the objective of this image. This is because it has been angled to be photographed in the center of the image and is the brightest, strong and smoothed out area. The lining in this image ranges from smooth lines found along the river and banks, to rough, sharp and edgy lines that form the mountains and trees. over all this image in interesting to view as there seems to be some sort of story or beauty that is being expressed. Dark and light elements contrast with each other to form a beautiful, landscape image.

‘The very nature of Romanticism is rather uncontrollable and unpredictable. At other times its quiet and sensual power manifests into beautiful and stunning images.’

Romanticism placed particular emphasis on emotion, horror, awe, terror and apprehension. Emotion and feeling were central not only to the creation of the work, but also in how it should be read – meaning that the photograph provokes the viewer to feel a certain way, which makes the image create a bigger impact on the viewer.

This is an example of romanticism in landscape photography because the bright colors and misty flow of the water, along with the dark, stormy clouds creates a powerful atmosphere which provokes the viewer to feel a certain way.

Romanticism in landscapes is also found in other art forms such as paintings:

Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph – Wikipedia

Ansel Adams – Landscapes

This is an incredible landscape shot taken by Ansel Adams of The Tetons and the Snake River (1942) Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.

Ansel Adams uses the rule of thirds to create the perfect landscape shot. He framed the shot so that the top third of the image is the sky, and the lower third of the image is the land, creating balance in the image while bringing most of the attention of the viewer to the details on the ground in the midground.

The perspective of the image looks across the landscape, watching the river wind away from the camera, almost creating a vanishing point where the river appears to get smaller as it bets further away.

There is a large sense of depth in the image without using a wide aperture, Ansel Adams achieved this by using a small aperture and capturing a vast landscape. The focus of the image is the mid ground/background, the mountains. The size of the mountains compared to the flat river and woodlands in the foreground/mid ground creates a sense of depth and shows how far away the mountains are.

This sense of depth also giver the mountains and the image as a whole a sense of scale and how much Ansel Adams captured in one frame.

The lighting in this image is the diffused sunlight from the overcast sky. This creates even lighting throughout the image, with no harsh shadows or over exposed areas.

The image is in black and white which emphesises the tonal range. The contract within the image is high which gives dark shadows in the trees and the base of the mountains, but light highlights of the snow on the mountains and the light reflecting off of the river. This also adds to the depth of the image showing the scale of the dark shadows cast by the mountains.