Ansel Adams Life

Ansel Adams was a Californian photographer and environmentalist born on February 20th 1902. As a child, Adams found joy in nature; he would rake long walks everyday through the Golden Gate, the sand dunes, Lobos Creek and Baker Beach.

At age 14 he received his first camera and proved to be a talented photographer. In the 1920s Adams worked as a custodian of the Sierra Club’s Lodge in Yosemite Park where he continued his landscape photography.

By 1935, Adams had become famous amongst the photography community. Throughout the 1940s he continued to explore the technical possibilities of photography in this and other ways. Adams was an advocate for protecting and preserving the American natural landscape. He believed that the possibility of humankind living in harmony with the environment was highlighted through his artwork which showed the natural beauty of the American country side.

In 1980, Adams received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for not only his photography but also his environmental work. Sadly, Ansel Adams died in April 22nd 1984.

Analysis

This is an digital photograph by Ansel Adams in the 1930s. The mise en scene presents a snake like river spiralling through the centre of the image, surrounded by tremendous mountains and forest.

The lighting is natural from the sky, it is more soft due to the clouds covering the harsh sunlight. The colours are monochrome, this further accentuates the sublime as it is almost terrifying how colossal the world is. The dark silhouettes of the trees in the foreground are powerful it symbolises the mystery of what could be in the forest and the undiscovered areas of earth.

The focal point of the image is the river as the reflection of the light is angelic. The river leads through the image which displays to us the entirety of the image.

The aperture appears to be quite high, due to the wide depth of field and the image being quite dark, around f/16. Also this follows the rule of thirds as shown:

Adams used a Pocket Kodak and tripod to take this photo:

To conclude, I personally really like this image and I am very inspired to take photos of the sublime similar to this. I think I will go to Pride Rock in St Ouen’s and I will take photos there, in a similar style to Adams. I will use a tripod like Adams did as shown:

Ansel Adams states: “A great photograph is one that fully expresses what one feels, in the deepest sense, about what is being photographed.” This quote is referring to how powerful his photographs are. They make you feel a sense of smallness in the sense that you are just 1 person in this gargantuan world. It shows the true beauty of nature, linking to the sublime.

Group f.64

Group f/64 was a group founded by seven talented San Francisco Bay Area photographers who shared a common photographic style characterized by sharply focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western viewpoint.

In Oakland Calif in 1932, several talented photographers met at a studio that was owned by Willard Van Dyke and Mary Jeanette Edwards. They invited others including, Ansel Adams to join them for a party. The group was looking to solve common problems both aesthetic and financial.

The group name f/64 is referring to a small aperture on a large format camera, this captures a large depth of field and secures an evenly sharp photograph. As it is such a small aperture a long exposure is needed and a slow moving or motionless subject as not to blur the image. This is why the group used landscapes and used tripods.

On November 15th 1932, the group displayed their images in a gallery for the first time.

The photograph is called: “Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park,”

This was one of Adams first images exhibited images, it looks extremely impressive. Adams used a red filter on his image to accentuate the darkness and shadows.

In 1940, Ansel Adams with Fred Archer created the zone system of photography.

The zone system was created to help photographers control the black and white colours of their photographs. Each zone represents the tones of a monochrome photo, it is put in order of gradient. This provided structure and helped to determine the exposure of their image.

This is a labelled diagram of the tones I found in an Ansel Adams photograph.

Comparison of Adams to Weston

Edward Weston was an American photographer born in the late 1800s. He was famous for photographing nude photos and vegetables. His work is very abstract but has some similarities to Adams.

Both artist use monochrome colours with the exposure accentuated. In addition, both photographers use nature. Weston usually photographs the intricate and interesting details of vegetables and plants. However, Adams uses the beauty of mountains, rivers and the American country side. Adams uses wide landscapes with a wide depth of field however Weston uses close up shots.