When the colours of the images where altered and similar to each other, I had a theme where they looked similar to each other. However some doors were still slightly not straight because of the angle I originally took them at. I had to align them and comparing one to another so that they were proportional to each other. This was done in Lightroom using crop tool where I changed the angle of some photographs and also cropped them to match the others.

A thing I wish to improve on or which didn’t go exactly to plan was that the sizes of the doors are not exactly the same on the photographs when compared next to each other. This is because some photographs are more zoomed in then others. sometimes it was because I couldn’t have the same distance from the camera to the door each time, but to improve that whenever I do a typology next time would be to get much more photographs or the object with more different length points.

once the images were ready I simply created my own grid in Photoshop by using the rectangle tool to create long white rectangles which were as lines between the photographs. I have then spaced them out evenly, both horizontally and vertically between the pictures. This ensured all images were of the same size.

Creating a GIF

With a couple of the images I decided to have a go at creating a GIF. To do that I firstly in Photoshop selected File-Scripts-Load Filed Into Stock.

After I was able to select which images I wanted to include, this could of been done with more or less images but i have decide to pick 5.

Once the images are uploaded, on the bottom of the screen there an option with an arrow pointing down, this out of all options was selected to Create Frame Animation, in the timeline box what can be edited about the GIF is how fast the images move, this could be very quick or slow, I decided to go with a close to the middle option which made them move fast but still visible to notice what each picture is.

What I had to do next is by clicking the lined box under the X, I made fames from layers.

Then I have changed the time of how quick the images move from one to another. This was because of the arrow below each image. originally it was to 0sec and I changed it to 0.2.

As I knew the selected topic for me to create a typology on were doors, I have gone out with a camera to town where after wondering for a while I found an estate which wasn’t busy and had interesting looking doors.

The doors were interesting to me because most were colourful and unusual, unusual because of their shape, colours, . These doors were not modernised which what made me drawn to photographing them more as then they are a part of history and can even tell a story through the way they look.

The main challenges of this photoshoot was to get every door photographed at the same angle and size. this is the reason I ended up with multiple pictures of the same doors. These picture were often in different distances from the camera.

SUB SELECTION

I have selected and narrowed down the options from the photoshoot by picking the best quality photograph based on the angle it was taken at. The selected images had to not repeat so if I liked look of a certain door, I would have to look through the pictures taken of that door and select the best one.

EDITING

To make all the pictures relatively the same I have used only one editing setting. This means I have edited one photograph, enhancing the texture, temperature, and played with other setting like exposure and tint, until I achieved a result I was satisfied with

Then copied all the adjustments in photoshop and pasted them onto all the other images. This means all the photographs had the same adjustments done to them.

What I am interested in photographing are a series of doors. This is because this also links very well to the topic of “home” and I find it it interesting how an ordinary subject, like a door is used regularly everyday and is so good at it’s function however not many will look at one for more then a couple seconds to think much more about it, like it’s beauty, the way it was made, by who it was made, how old it is and many more questions that would come after these, maybe how many people massed through this door, how many times it was painted over , or haw many people lived in the house of that door.

with this idea I created a mind map of how to photograph the subject and how I may want the layout of a typology to look like.

Who-this photoshoot shouldn’t include any people in it, since I will be photo shooting in a busy area, some strangers may get in the frame , but I should not use these pictures.

What- My main focus is going to be house doors, however I will look out for doors that are unique, are different and show history behind them, doors that aren’t new or modern but rather old , colourful maybe even worn out.

Where- In St. Helier Town I plan to wonder outside the main street and find estates that may have a similar pattern to the doors the houses have. some estates may even be hidden and I could be unaware about them, this is why I do not have an exact location for the photoshoot location.

When- Since the subject is quite personal as it is someone’s home I need to be aware that people are more likely to come from and out of their homes during times like early in the morning or around 4-6pm as most people start/finish work at these times. The best times to go is during the day at noon, during the week, as on weekends people are likely to be home.

How- Since the photographs I will be making are supposed to be grouped into a typology, displayed one next to the other, they should be taken at the same angle and style. I should make them as similar as I can. However because i am not going to be using a tripod, and I might stand in different distances from the door, I am awa

Why- To respond to the topic of typologies, but also to get an understanding of how a typology is made, including the challenges and advantages of the making process. This could include how to take the pictures and make them relatively similar.

The term ‘Typology’ was first used to describe a style of photography when Bernd and Hilla Becher began documenting dilapidated German industrial architecture in 1959. The couple described their subjects as ‘buildings where anonymity is accepted to be the style’.

They have produced a number of photographs of the items being photographed slightly similar and of the same function but in different places, these photographs when placed next to each other, in a grid like pattern, they would look very similar as they would be taken from the same angle, at approximately the same distance from the buildings.

 Their aim was to capture a record of a landscape they saw changing and disappearing before their eyes so once again, They challenged the viewer to consider a subject’s place in the world and also being a record of time and change.

Bernd and Hilla Becher

were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are key figures of typologies and have influenced many generations of documentary photographers and artists, through being the founders of what has come to be known as the ‘Becher school’ or the ‘Düsseldorf School’. They photographed Industrial structures including water towers, coal bunkers, gas tanks and factories. Their work had a documentary style as their images were always taken in black and white. Their photographs never included people. They exhibited their work in sets or typologies, grouping of several photographs of the same type of structure.

at first their work had been more refereed as sculpture as in 1990, they received an award at the Venice Biennale not for photography, but sculpture, due to their ability to illustrate the sculptural properties of architecture. This was also because of the book they have published, their first and their most well-known body of work, photobook Anonymous Sculptures, published in 1970.

I was reading some of the critics opinions that have been stated about their work and I came across this one “They are the lines on the face of the world. The photographs are portraits of our history. And when the structures have been demolished and grassed over, as though they were never there, the pictures remain.” said by Michael Collins, in the The Long Look.

I really like how they decided to focus on these specific architectural objects, as these objects may not be the most exiting, even the photograph it’s self might not appear as one of exiting ones, however it’s the way they decided to present them that is interesting, how side by side each one compliment the other, may make the other stand out, might challenge the viewer to compare them and encourage noticing the differences between them. The objects, like stated by Michael Collins are evidence of their existence, although we might not see them anymore or see them in a different state now, the photograph keeps them alive and is that record of their existence.

She mentioned at the start their photography was labeled as documentary only, and disliked by other photographers which would call it boring and old fashioned. this is what i find very inspirational about their work, how it was so different then others and disliked but they didn’t stop and now are an influence to others.

She talk about the first major subject which was industrial plants as the area was the first in Germany to be abandoned. she stated what they wanted to achieve is to capture what was left of it before it is gone. her husband grew up there , this project was sentimental to him and was all about preserving his childhood. the idea of photographs was initially to preserve a memory, however by what they both decided to photograph they not only did that but wrote a story with those photographs. Later on in the video she said that grouping these image, presenting them side by side, it felt like making a movie. This to me is a great definition of typography, taking ordinary objects, ordinary photographs and by the presentation telling a story, adding a meaning to them, a flow which makes the images look much more interesting.

She said she learnt that the best typologies are the ones with some sort of pattern. In order to create the best typologies is to understand the subject, not romanticizing it and to simply let the subject be what its wants to be .

“it about understanding your own pleasure” she said about her work, and to me it isn’t just about photography but about any work someone decides to produce. She is a great example of when one is passionate about their work and has the courage to keep on going with what they started then the work will pay off.

There are other photographers that explored or used typologies when displaying their work. A couple being:

sub-selection

editing

FINAL IMAGES

Stephen Shore is an American photographer known for his images of banal scenes and objects, and for his pioneering use of colour in art photography. Stephan Shore was one of 10 artists involved in the New Topography exhibition. these artist worked more individually rather then in a group, where all had different types of images.

Out of these 10 artist I have decided to analyse and educate myself further on his artwork as what pulled me in was his use of colour which has a big impact on the photograph and what a photograph stands for, he uses colour to his advantage when it comes to showing a meaning or story of a photograph.

Looking at his images, they often are based in street settings, looking unplanned like he is wondering around the cities inviting us on his journey and memories from these towns. His pictures are usually based in good looking weather where there is bright blue clear sky, and the sun is sharp shining from above or the side. He picks places with shop signs and includes cars in most of his work. His street photography is like a record of time, time that is constantly changing, if today a photographer wanted to recreate his pictures in the same places as Stephen did, they would look completely different. every aspect of his photo is in some way is”temporary” like cars, the signs, lamps etc. Today the shop signs would be replaced to other ones or maybe taken down, the cars would be entirely different and new technology would be included, new buildings might be built or bus stops and all these changes would create a different landscape in a different time. what Stephen shore and others on new topography wanted,was to record that change, to acknowledge the time now in a world of constant change. This might be a reason why Stephen decides to include a lot of cars in his photographs, especially moving ones, he indicates this change, time constantly moving, people getting from one place to another, and he makes a photograph that is a record of a single moment, a moment which already passed and cant be taken back, cant be repeated and replaced.

on this website https://bensmithphoto.com/asmallvoice/tag/Stephen+Shore

1. How it differs from previous book, The Nature of Photographs.
2. Artist’s superstition over discussing the creative process
3. The importance of experimentation
4. Showing and not explaining
5. Photography as a ‘generous medium’
6. Creating the book as an ‘experience’
7. Structure vs. composition
8. Inclusion vs. exclusion
9. Mastering the discipline – 3 phases
10. Does he believe in The Muse?
11. Being attentive in the midst of life
12. Working with a performance coach
13. The influence of paintings… and Walker Evans
14. The nature (and importance) of ambition
15. Getting a solo show at The Met, aged 23
16. Sustaining drive
17. His interest in drone photography… and Instagram
18. The day he realised the 8×10 camera was for him

However the answers from Stephen shore that I wanted to focus on are:

1. Artist’s superstition over discussing the creative process
2. The importance of experimentation
3. Showing and not explaining
4. Structure vs. composition
5. Inclusion vs. exclusion
6. Does he believe in The Muse?
7. The nature (and importance) of ambition
8. Sustaining drive

the questions in pink are mainly about the photographs and how he produces them, what inspires him, keeps him going and general about his work. whereas the one in green is more about his opinions and thoughts that are not only to do with photography but can be linked to other matters for different people.

what stephen has said about experimentation is that as times change and so does his teachings and it is responsive to change, the time and place, it comes natural to change and experiment with other mediums. This links to the creative process which is…

the interviewer asked an interesting question which was “photography is good at showing but bad at explaining.” to which Stephen responded with a statement ” a picture is worth a thousand words”he then said one of his favourite pictures is a picture taken by Garry Winogrand.

he said when looking at this image , analyzing each person, hhow they are sitting, what they are doing, their relation to each other, this could take a thousand words, the longer you describe it the less simultaneity which means the words could never do what the picture is doing. by this he means a photograph would evoke o lot in a person or their feeling and their perception of the photograph but it would be difficult to write about this or find the words for it. he then talk about how in childrens books if a child was reading a story of a forest, when the image is in the book this restricts childrens imagination, the picture of a forest in the book would be different to the one a child would imagine, this means that this is what the words are capable of doing and the power they have likewise to and image/photograph. both could be used a a story writing but each challenges the viewer in a different way. a photograph will have a story to it that is up to anyone imagination, but a story will encourage imagination and create these images in ones mind.

what i liked when Stephen was talking about Structure vs. composition or Inclusion vs. exclusion is his reference of painting and photography, where he said that with painting you start of with a blank canvas and build on top of it creating in image but with photography, taking pictures its the opposite, you start off with a matter, like landscape and you then build it from there, deciding from what angle to capture it, what to capture, depending on weather, different times of year etc.

he talks about a period in the 80s, when the work wasn’t coming out how he wanted it to, he said that there were times where he would ask himself of the idea of a muse, and question himself as a photographer, but as soon as one day he picked at the camera it came natural and easy, that once he got in the head space to go out and make the photographs the pictures almost came to him. This links to finding ambition and then motivation to keep going , once he was fixed on doing something it was harder to stop and how the importance of keeping this momentum is a key for sustaining drive.

The above image is one of Stephens most popular photographs, to me it is so interesting, and the more i look at it the more detail i notice that can be talked about. this image is quite fun to analyse because of the different values certain parts have. the first thing i noticed is that Stephen Shore, like Robert Adams or other photographers within the subject of new topography, he included a tiny area of a natural background that the urban one interacts with. although this area is not the biggest in the photograph, it catches my eye as the mountains in the background oppose the urban landscape. in the urban landscape there are many repetitions of straight lines or even patterns that these lines create, the pattern is repetitive and could be said is the perfect demonstration of the man-made items, where people keep the made objects simple but functional, however this looses the natural beauty. the outline of the mountains is a perfect example of the differences between man vs nature, where the line of the mountain is unpredictable, rough and untidy, whereas everything else in the first plan is the opposite of that, the lines of objects are straight, direct and certain.

This comparison gives a great value to the photograph, and the reason why Stephen decided to be in an area which will make the mountain look secondary and be as a background to the urban landscape, said a lot about humans evolution and population. To me its like Stephen is showing how the nature and natural world is going to be forgotten or at least its on it’s way of being forgotten, with lamp posts and shop signs getting in the way of seeing this mountain, like people are the cause of this natural world destruction, but also because the mountain is distant might also link to this disappearance of nature and it being secondary, unimportant and a distant dream like there is a segregation between people and nature, where the urbanised, populated areas are specifically for humans and if one wants to make this connection with the natural world it will eventually seem harder for them to do so. This photograph was taken in 1975 and since then a lot has changed, this idea of humans being segregated from nature, back them might of only been a beginning of it. However now, people are consumed with today’s social world, hardly any see the sense of freedom nature gives, as we are born, we are pressured onto a certain lifestyle, like school and job, as well with technology not many can see how far from nature we are today. With this photograph if it was taken from where the mountain was it’s meaning would be flipped, where it may seem nature is overtaking civilisation, however because it is not and because of the times and meaning of the subject of new topographics, it is unlikely that it would stand for that meaning.

Stephen was one of a couple photographers producing coloured prints at the time, this also means he was able to give more detail that would correspond to the meaning behind the image. the bright blue sky takes up the majority of the image and a lot of detail is in the bottom 1/3 of the whole image. in that space there are cars, shop signs, traffic lights, street lights and a couple buildings. what I noticed there is a lot of repetitive colours, these being blue, red and white. this might link to the American flag, and what it stands for, these colours might be repetitive because the picture is taken in the USA. I noticed these colours firstly when looking at the top part of the image, the petrol station sign.

This is the closest item to the camera and catches ones attention because of its size as well as having a plain blue sky as it’s background. the colours correspond to the one on an American flag, however what I’ve noticed is the arrow like shapes, used to market the petrol station, however it is because it is in the middle of the top 1/3 of the whole image, it look like it is pointing to the mountains or the road which is behind the station.

In this photograph there are many hints of travel, transport, and movement. There is an elongated road stretched towards the mountains, cars traveling that direction, petrol stations for these vehicles, even little hints of the light being green, allowing the cars to travel further. The location Stephen picked definitely has a purpose and to me this is him encouraging people to explore nature, to travel to it, towards it as there is ,or there shouldn’t be anything stopping someone from doing so. In my opinion he is trying to state that in a constant changing world, with new technology, buildings, more rules and laws, we shouldn’t ignore the natural world, we should explore it. He is not taking a picture of just the natural world like Ansel Adams would, where his images would be idealised in a way, Ansel would make his way to these locations to take an image , whereas Stephen, especially with this photograph does the opposite, he makes people wonder and encourage them to travel for themselves to these locations, he shows a process to it. Because he wants to show reality, reality of people, day to day time, he is showing that it is more possible, even the photograph including just a small part of the mountain may make people wonder how it looks close up, how it looks from a different angle. Stephen gives people this sense of exploration through his photographs, makes them wonder and think, with this photograph for instance is about travel to the natural world and how distant it is, and is becoming, but through many others he challenges the viewer to really spot the hidden meaning behind it.

Areas of interest: St. Helier (Town), Harbours(St Aubin/ St Helier), Havre de pas, St Aubins Bay

Mood board– pictures that allow me to follow their pattern, I will inspire to take images that are influenced by these, this comes to the angles of the camera, the object being photographed, colours, weather and editing. This is because those pictures to me are very fascinating.

Who – since the areas i plan to photograph are very civilized and populated, i am aware that there may be times where random people may get in the frame, or i may capture strangers in my photographs, since my main focus is to photograph landscapes i will try to avoid capturing people, but if i do then again it is not a problem as they are a part of that landscape.

What– the main focus is to respond with this photo shoot to new topographic, which is through photographing buildings, however buildings that correspond to the area, and it’s history, but populated areas will have other values that i cant escape from like lampposts, a couple trees/flowers or bushes that might be a part of the houses, cars that are on the roads and other vehicles.

Where– in more civilized areas where there is greater amount of man-made objects, like towns and cities, in jersey the biggest town since it’s a small island, is town in St. Helier. but i may also find a great amount of buildings or vehicles in harbors,car parks etc.

When- cities look very interesting during the night due to lots of different types of lights, i might explore night photography in these areas with many different lighting but i would like to also capture some building in a sharp light like maybe during a sunset or sunrise, or throughout the day when the sun is out. i would not like to take photographs in a dull weather because if the background is very smooth and one solid colour this may blend in with the objects I’m photographing, depending what colour they are, but also makes the photograph look quite uninteresting as there is less going on.

How- as it’s a landscape photo shoot i plan on finding a balance between the sky and buildings. i also may experiment with certain angle especially when photographing a bigger building or object but being up close

Why– this photo shoot is a response to new topography, i am influenced by many of the new topography artist, but mainly Stephen Shore as i find his work the most interesting. i want to produce photographs influenced by his but also represent the meaning of new topography which was to capture the changing world. some artist even included the urban landscape mixed with the natural so i will try to find locations suitable for that.

The raise of urban landscapes had a major link between the new topographics. New topographics which is a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers, such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz who would photograph urban landscapes. New topographics is similar to new objectivity, as it is a movement of a reaction to romanticism. Romanticism was born as a reaction to an opposing idea, realism, however new topographics was a reaction and opposing romanticism and showing realism through photography.

New topographics mean photographs of a man-altered landscape, like buildings, roads or vehicles. some examples of this are:

A lot of key figures of new topographics were: Robert Adams, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel Jr.

Beginning in the 1920s, Ansel Adams cultivated an approach to landscape photography that posited nature as separate from human presence. Adams photographed scenery in a manner intended to provoke feelings of awe and pleasure in the viewer. Adams wanted his pictures’ viewers to feel as uplifted as he had when looking at the scenery in person. The environmental approach in his photography seeks to preserve exceptional landscapes and protect them from human intervention. By contrast, when visitors walked into New Topographics, they encountered subject matter that was all too commonplace, represented in an unfamiliar manner. What was both novel and challenging about New Topographics was not only the photographs’ content, but how they made viewers feel. By foregrounding, rather than erasing human presence, the photographs placed people into a stance of responsibility towards the landscape’s future. In conclusion new topographics was both a reflection of the increasingly suburbanised world around them, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental, it made people think about the reality of the urbanization and it’s effects on the natural world.

A lot of photographs include both “natural” landscape e.g. natural forms like hills, mountains, trees etc. and combining these with arcitectual, or man-made subjects like cars, buildings and so on.

Robert Adams is an American photographer who was focused on changing landscape photography, and he did this by his book called The New West as well as his exhibition New Topographics , this is what he got well-known and recognised for. He is a key artist that changed the landscape photography.

My first response to romanticism landscape was inspired by Ansel Adams and his work. I have previously done an analysis of his work which gave me an idea as well as inspiration to explore his way of making images.

Comparing my image inspired by him to his own work, I think what is a big resemblance is the exposure of the image and the amount of darkness to brightness. his photograph has a much larger area of the clouds, this also means that area is lighter in relation to the rest of the components in the photograph. regarding my photograph I have very small amount of clouds shown, this is because in order to show as much land as well as different plans like the trees nearest to me, from the area that I was standing in I had to compromise on what to and how to point the camera to capture what I wanted. because Ansel Adams photographs much bigger areas he is able to shoot the desired photograph from further away and be able to get a lot in the frame as well as a big area of clouds, as I was limited to much smaller areas in jersey photographing a larger area of the sky could mean I may loose detail I wanted in the frame. a similarity between his and my image is that he also has layers in his image where he has a first plan, second , maybe even more , background etc. the object nearest to the camera, like the 2 trees in the bottom right corner are much darker, being a pure black likewise like my own photograph, where the trees nearest to me are also a pure black , however what is different is that they are much bigger and therefore the larger surface area is black.

The trees near to me in the photograph frame the image whereas his is more open as in his photograph there aren’t any objects close to the camera on the sides of the photo. this could be good and bad, depending on the viewer as framing an image may result in capturing less of the desired landscape, it will also make the landscape look less open , which when photographing an area which is already beautiful may take away its value as then there’s less of that landscape area visible. But this framing may also mean the photograph gives more of a personal value as then it feels more like the viewer is in it , it may seem more realistic. I picked this image out of a couple of my final images to analyse, where I also have an image of the same view without the trees in the first plan, however although that image is also a good photograph , it doesn’t have that personal value to me and the frame that the trees created to me make it much more interesting as there are more detail in the photograph and they also balance the bright and dark areas as the rest of the landscape and clouds are quite bright whereas this frame contrasts with this as it is very dark and to me creates more of a sublime photograph.

With the above image I wanted to represent a different tone to black and white photography which meant adding a different filter on the image and working from that with exposure brightness etc. This image does a good job at representing a vintage photography style, however I felt like the fist analysis image had more in comparison to Ansel Adams works. although the style of the above image interest me and although it was firstly inspired by Ansel and it doesn’t have to look exactly like his work, I found the other images more interesting to analyse fully.

Another similarity between mine and his photograph is that he has a small area, in contrast with the rest of the photograph , of pure white which is the lightest colour he can achieve. This white can be visible on top of the mountains he photographed. The snow and a bit in some clouds are his lightest points whereas my photograph also has a small area of pure white but it can be seen in the water, when waves crash onto the shore and similarly in the sky and clouds. To me the amount of brightness in the photo is very similar to Ansel Adams photograph . however his white usually pairs up with a darker shade that the rocks on the mountain have making it look much more dramatic and make the white stand out more whereas mine blends in with the shade of the sand.

As a whole I have enjoyed exploring his style and although his landscape locations are much more fascinating and interesting then the ones I am capable of capturing right now, the style of his work like the enhancement of the shadows and dramatics of his images was very fun and different then what I’m used to edit. however what I should of payed more attention to was the colours that contrast each other, as with his work because of these opposite colours that are right next to each other, his photographs look so pronounced. 2 colours of completely different shaded being next to each other, quickly changing from one another, meaning they are not smooth or blended in, will make the image look sharp as a whole and this is why Ansel’s photographs look this conspicuous.

My photographs:

Ansel Adams’ Photographs:

Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West.

He helped an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favoured sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph, this group was called group f/64. This stands for the smallest aperture achieved at a large format camera. which is a type of camera Ansel and his team were using at the time, the advantages of it is that it has incredible depth of field and huge amount of detail due to the size of the negative, and negatives is that it is heavy and would be difficult to carry it to some hidden places with interesting background, as well as the equipment that comes with it is heavy.

To ensure all the tonal values are represented in a photograph , he came up with the zone system, this system is said to make the “perfect” photograph and he would often make his photos darker then the original or the ones he would firstly take.

Zooming into one of his images to the point where it is so pixelated and the little coloured squares show a range of colours , where each square is a different shade of black&white, supporting his zone system.

Ansel Adams is known also for his visualised images , he wanted the images to look just like he visualised them in his head, he noticed that what he saw with his own eyes did not look the same on the camera, therefore he experimented with the camera he had to achieve this image as the one in his mind.

With his camera he tried to make a photograph with a yellow filter yet this wasn’t an effect he wanted , he wanted to darken and exaggerate the shadows, so he changed the yellow filter to a red one. this might of been an image he saw with his eyes but not what he saw in his head.

I have researched history behind one of his most famous images through https://www.anseladams.com/story-behind-the-image-monolith-the-face-of-half-dome/. On a spring morning of April 10th, 1927, Ansel Adams set out along Yosemite’s LeConte Gully to capture an image of the face of Half Dome, one of Yosemite National Park’s most iconic natural features. As a teenager he was working as the keeper of the Sierra Club’s nearby lodge in Yosemite Valley. He and his friends decided to take on a hike to capture the beauty of the Yosemite national Park. This journey was very life changing for Ansel as he just recently realised he started to drift from the musician profession he had, into photography. The photograph he made, shows the mountain rising from an ink-black sky, its face illuminated by a dazzling midday sun just out of frame. Like i said before, Ansel initially made an exposure using a yellow filter, he immediately swapped that for a dark red filter, which darkened the sky and produced the deep shadows and bright light we can see in the final image. It was a startling expression of emotion and drama from the young photographer, and its technical excellence and artistic mastery would soon launch Adams’ career as one of the finest commercial and fine-art photographers of the 20th century.

Personally i wanted to educate myself on his work as his images have a mystery behind them and aren’t just simple block&white images. if the images were taken now this effect would be achievable through editing and adjusting exposure, darkness, shadows, brightness etc. However whats so amazing is that he achieved this by changing a colour that he put over the lens. it his experimentation that i find ambitious and determination to achieve the exact image that he inspires to, and wont give up until he produces exactly that.

Like with the above image, which is a perfect example of Ansel’s work. looking at this image although it is in black&white so many tones are displayed, these tones are balanced and this is what makes the image make sense on its own. if the photograph was in colour a lot of colours would be seen, he not only decided to photograph an interesting location but chose a very good time of day where the sun is coming from the right making sharp highlights within the image. as the image is darker then usual, meaning to achieve this effect, today there would have to be a dramatic exaggeration of the shadows and dark areas. This effect creates an interesting image that relates to the idea of the sublime, where it may scare but amaze, create that terror and awe.

As Ansel Adams was a revolutionary photographer that came up with many strategies for photography one of being the zone system, however being such a great photographer he also said inspirational quotes such as the one above. There are many other quotes but I have decided to talk about this one as it is the most personal to me and I think it has a deeper meaning. I think this quote relates a lot to his work the most as because the idea of visualisation behind each image frames the quote. “expression of one feels” to me defines the art of photography and what photography in my opinion should stand for, it should encourage people to express themselves, to be creative, in a way to show emotion and what a person feels or felt when making the photograph. That’s why he defines photography as being an expression of what one feels as to him this is very important element of photography, to be able to show his visualisation, feelings or the way his mind works through his photographs.