Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his Black and white photographs and how he put his own style onto photographs with the use of Monochromatic photos.

What is Monochromatic?

Monochromatic means having or consisting of one singular colour. This is a style of photography that relies on the use of one colour, in one or more shades, to create an image.

The type of camera Adams used was called a Kodak Brownie Box Camera. The design of it is in the name ‘box’ with its square-like shape, very old fashioned but very modern at the time with it being a series of camera models made by Eastman Kodak released in 1900.

Ansel Adams was born in 1902, when he got his first camera at the age of 14, he also started playing piano at 14 but he knew he wasn’t going to become a musician. Him and his family went to Sierra Nevada where he took photos of the mountains and different ranges and was really proud of his photos, and that’s where he knew he wanted to become a photographer. In 1906 there was a very big earthquake with a magnitude of 7.9 and during that earthquake Adams got hit and broke his nose. He left it due to the fact he didn’t want anyone to see it and thought it was alright until the fact he went to school and was so shy and insecure about his disfigured nose which made other kids look at him funny and he kept having to move schools because of this leading to eventually his dad pulling him out of school, home-schooling him and getting him a tutor. After that he was feeling a lot better but he still had this disfigured face/nose, but he really enjoyed walking through the forest and taking landscape pictures.

In 1927, he got a break that changed his life dramatically when he was named Sierra’s Club official trip photographer. The Sierra Club was one of the worlds oldest environmental preservation societies.

The Zone System:

Ansel Adams was known for pioneering the zone system to create dramatic tone in his photos.

Starts at grey which is on 0 F Stop. You change the aperture on your camera to change the shade of your photo.

The photo below depicts one of Adams’ first experiments with filters that enabled him to capture the drama he wanted.