What is Rural Photography
“the diverse portion of the nation’s land area not densely populated or intensively developed, and not set aside for preservation in a natural state“
Rural photography is a landscape style of photography that focuses on the natural world including little to know man made objects and human intervention.
Ansel Adams
Adams was an American photographer, painter and environmentalist who worked during the 1900s. He was born on the 20th of February in 1902 in California and died on the 22nd of April 1984 making him 82 years of age when he died. Adams was a pioneer of landscape photography during the twentieth century he also painted. Ansel Adams shot black and white landscape images primarily in national parks in the US. This is why his images are famously rural and the landscape was untouched by humans. Ansel’s mother was very unsupportive of her son as she spent all her time worrying about how to make ends meet since the Adams family fortune collapsed. Ansel’s farther however was very supportive of his son. At a young age an earthquake struck San Francisco where Adams lived at the time. the quake cause Ansel to fall badly breaking his nose which left permanent damage and scaring. This as well as natural shyness caused difficulty for Adams to fit in at school. Due to this as well as Ansel supposedly being dyslexic he was home schooled by his father Charlie Adams and his aunt. this solitary childhood lead to Adams finding his love of nature which is what sparked his interest in photographing the natural world.
Image Analysis
Firstly this image is in black and white, this is likely due to the lack of technology for the general population to own cameras capable of producing coloured images. However the photographer Ansel Adams still managed to create an image that makes it easy for a viewer to determine the colours that would have been seem. This could be due to the heavy contrast between the shadowed and lit places. additionally the sunrays penetrating the clouds gives a certain contrast and glow to the background of the image. In this image I noticed the repetition of he patterns in the rocks in the foreground at a glance however when i look close into the image I notice all the randomised different shapes and features. This image has an obvious symmetry. This can be seen in the background where there are similar size mountains on either side of a valley that is the the exact centre of the photograph. the sun rays as well as the shadows being projected on the rocks shows that the sun light is coming from the top right of the image. this indicates that this photo was taken in the mid afternoon or mid morning where the sun is about half way between the horizon and the peak of its orbit. The could in the mountains give the image an ominous feeling, they also show how big the mountains are which i believe truly portrays the immensity of nature and how small we are in relation to it. After looking at this image i get the felling that the rocks are like a maze that needs to be passed before we can reach the mountains and climb to the top which gives me the impression that even in nature we have to work hard to climb to the top.