Ansel Adams uses a large format view camera, where he used the lowest aperture, f/64 which allowed him to capture the fine detail and sharpness across the whole photo, allowing him to print larger images. The smaller the aperture, means a greater depth of field is created. Ansel Adams captures his photos mainly on black and white film still, which helps focus the viewers attention, whilst emphasising shapes rather than colours. This creates an interesting effect because we can also see the contrast in colour, which creates a unique gradients of darker and lighter grey tones.

The depth created in the photo is elevated by the snake river that runs up the middle of the photo, creating a unique depth of field leading us up to the mountains. This creates an important focus point in the landscape as the darker tones creates contrast, giving a dramatic effect as they are softly elevated by the speckled lighter tones that outline areas, creating a more warmer tone and feel. As we can see from areas of the sky and the river, the light that shines and outlines areas creates a smooth but rough texture in places. As the viewer we pay more attention to the lighter areas as we would typically notice this straight away, as they are exaggerated and highlighted more by the darker tones that surround these areas.

The Tetons and Snake River is one of the most famous pieces of photography in the world, inspiring many photographers. Some described the photo as ‘iconic’ because of the unique setting and compositions. The particular way you get lost looking up the river, gives an elevated and sinuous sense of reading, making you look and move in an indirect and curving way. Making you feel calm because it softly changes direction whilst flowing off into the distance. This effect is also created by the subtle contrast in light, as it changes from the very illuminated areas to darker areas.

Ansel Adams communicates to the viewer the ‘greatness of nature.’ He used the river because he wanted our eyes to circulate in the river, which would lead our eyes up into the mountains. Adams used the late afternoon light which creates reflection and balances the exposure, elevating the texture and compositions in the landscape. It dramatises the landscape, because of the shadows created whilst it also exaggerates the textures throughout.

Intro

Ansel Adams is a very well known photographer. He is best known for his incredible landscape photos that he took in the Yosemite Valley in California.

Adams was born in 1902 in San Fransisco. In his early life, he faced many problems due to a nose injury that left it permanently disfigured. Additionally, Adams was a very shy person. Because of this, Adams didn’t have a great school life, and was constantly moving schools. Eventually, Adams was homeschooled. This meant that he then had more free time to himself. This is most likely when Ansel found his love for nature and photography. It is said that Ansel enjoyed long walks in the sand dunes and forests around his home in San Francisco.

At age 14, Ansel and his family visited the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Yosemite Valley. This was Adams’s first time in the Yosemite Valley. Adams was quoted saying, “That first impression of the valley—white water, azaleas, cool fir caverns, tall pines and solid oaks, cliffs rising to undreamed-of heights, the poignant sounds and smells of the Sierra… was a culmination of experience so intense as to be almost painful”. He had taken with him a Kodak Brownie Box camera, a portable camera in the shape of a box. With this camera, he began to take photos of the beautiful mountains and flowing rivers of the Yosemite Valley.

Techniques

Over the years, Adams developed a few interesting photographical techniques. One of these was splitting the photograph into different zones, determined by the black and white gradient. This is called the ‘zone system’.

This is done by manipulating the exposure settings of the camera (e.g. shutter speed) so that there is no pure black or pure white, and all of the zones of the photo fit within the zone rule. His main rule was that you should “Expose for the shadows, develop for the highlights”. Adams would do this while he was taking the photo. He also liked to use filters as well to enhance his meticulous colouring technique. It is also worth noting that Ansel used a film camera to take his photos. With a modern digital camera, this technique is more difficult to replicate because the light comes out more linearly, and exposing and developing is not possible.

Additionally, Adams edited his photos after they were taken. In a darkroom where the images would develop, Ansel would ‘dodge’ and ‘burn’ his images. Dodging the photo means to place an object above a region of the photo to block the light in the darkroom from reaching it, therefore exposing the photo in that region. Burning is the opposite of dodging, placing an outline of the region above the image so that the light in the dark room only reaches the open region, therefore underexposing the region. Ansel was known for being very good at both of these techniques, and it became a vital part of his photographical process.

Analysis

This is a photograph of the Half Dome summit in Yosemite. It is an iconic part of the Yosemite landscape, and in this photo dominates the majority of the frame. Adams did this to make the summit look as grand and massive as possible, and filling the frame with it creates this effect. This technique also makes the image appear flat and almost two-dimensional. However, Adams uses this two-dimensional appearance to fit the moon in the frame. Additionally, the summit and the moon are on opposite sides of the frame. This was most likely done to fill the frame up better, rather than having a blank corner in the top left. The Half Dome summit is also a great object to photograph. This is because the steep cliff has these long vertical lines that lead the eye down the cliff. Also, the cliff stands very tall above its surroundings, which is helpful for getting as much light as possible.

The lighting in this photo is also used rather interestingly. Because of the shadow on the side of the cliff, I can guess that this photo was taken at sunset. Adams uses the shadows to remove parts of the frame. This is done with the dark cliff on the left, and the part of the Half Dome that is outside of the frame on the right. Adams did this for two reasons. One was to create this smooth shape in the middle of the photo with the shadows. Two was to underexpose the photo to remove the detail in the shadows. This is so that the parts of the photo that are shaded are basically removed from the photo entirely, which increases the viewer’s focus on the exposed parts of the photo.

The story of this photo is quite spontaneous. It was taken while Ansel Adams was travelling through Yosemite. Adams saw this view of the Half Dome and decided to bring it to its full potential. The Half Dome summit appears multiple times throughout Ansel’s work since the beginning, when he first presented this image titled ‘Monolith, the Face of Half Dome’.

Although this is the same Half Dome that we see in the previous picture, it is clear that this angle offers a different perspective and overall a different interpretation of the Half Dome from Ansel Adams. Adams is quoted saying, “I have photographed Half Dome innumerable times, but it is never the same Half Dome, never the same light or the same mood… The many images I have made reflect my varied creative responses to this remarkable granite monolith”. It is very clear that Ansel has a fascination with not only the Yosemite Valley, but the specific mountains and peaks that make it iconic.

Photoshoot

In my response to Ansel Adams, I want to reflect Adams’ fascination with the Yosemite Valley by setting my photoshoot in a location in Jersey that I enjoy visiting, Plemont Beach.

The photoshoot took place in sunny, mid-day conditions when the tide was very low, which was enhanced by the wide range of tides that we experience in Jersey during the springtime.

During the photoshoot, I was very much inspired by Ansel Adams and his connection to the Yosemite Valley. When looking through Adams’s work, it is very clear that he is mostly fascinated by the Yosemite Valley. I compare this to my fascination with Plemont Beach. My idea going into this photoshoot was to show the parts of Plemont that I love the most. These were concentrated on the right side of the beach where the sun was at the time.

I started with some basic postcard-like landscape photos that were mainly focused on filling the frame with the right amount of land, ocean and sky.

I then started to use the rule of thirds in a portrait frame. This then formed into making some deadpan photos.

I was also very inspired by the rocks that were sat next to the ocean. I felt that I could use the rocks and the ocean, but also the other Channel Islands in the distance to fill the frame. I found that having a rock in the foreground of the image created a better environment in the photos.

I tried this idea with quite a few rocks that were scattered around that area of the beach. Eventually, I found the angle that I was looking for.

This was immediately a very powerful photo to me. The water flowing from the bottom of the image leads the eye towards the rock in the foreground, and moves on towards the final rock on the outside of the beach. In the distance, you can see Little Herm, Herm and Sark. The rule of thirds is also unintentionally used multiple times in this photo.

There are three islands in the distance;

the rocks in the foreground, the rock to the right of that and the islands in the distance also follow the rule of thirds;

and the flowing water follows the ‘left, right, left’ pattern that the example above does too.

All of this accumulates into a very visually appealing photo. I would say that it was inspired by this Ansel Adams photo that demonstrates similar ‘snake-like’ features.

In inspiration of this photo, I also edited a black and white version of my photo following Ansel Adams’ ‘zone system’.

I also briefly took photos of a cliff face which is fairly hidden away at Plemont, and I thought that I may be able to replicate another specific photo from Ansel Adams.

I experimented with a few different perspectives, but unfortunately I was very quick photographing this area and I didn’t experiment very much. However, these photos did turn out very well.

The comparison between these two photos is very obvious. Both cliffs are used to lead the eye from the top of the photo to the bottom, where in my image you can see a pool of water. Arguably, Ansel Adams did a better job at leading the eye down the frame as there are very apparent lines in the cliff face that they eye can easily follow, however, I am pleased at how comparable these two images are.

I also wanted to capture the sublime nature of standing alone between the vast cliffs either side of Plemont, and how empty it feels to stand alone in this vast landscape. Luckily, there was a person standing alone in the middle of everything. I knew this was a perfect opportunity for a great photo.

This second one I really liked. The sublime nature of this photo really stands out. The subject stands completely alone in the foreground, he is surrounded by the immense cliffs of Plemont, and towered by the cloudy sky above. I decided to experiment with this a little bit.

I tried to make a black and white version of this photo to enhance the feeling of emptiness prevalent in the photo.

I was very happy with how this turned out. I cropped the image to make the rocks and the subject equidistant to either side of the frame. The image is almost two-tone, which makes it fairly simple and easy to look at. The artistic message is very clear in this photo. The atmosphere is very lonely, and the photo feels quite mysterious and dark. However, I felt that the cliffs in this photo are too dark, so I decided to dodge that region of the photo to expose the cliffs.

Overall, I am very happy with this photo shoot in general. The weather conditions were perfect, and I was very able to capture Plemont the way that I had in mind. I may not have captured every part of Plemont that I had planned on, but I did end up with a good selection of best images.

Final Images

Topographic Photography is a technique in which typically a landscape is being photographed from afar.

New topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape.

Some very important New Topographic Artists were, Robert Adams, Frank Gohlke and then Bernd and Hilla Becher.

Robert Adams focused on changing landscape in the American West. ‘New Topographic’ from Adams, meant the romanticism and idealism traditionally associated with landscape photography. Instead, they adopted a more objective and detached approach to capture the contemporary urban and suburban environment.

Frank Gohlke was also an American but he received two Guggenheim fellowships from the national Endowment for Arts. Gohlke’s oeuvre is marked by a preoccupation with framing landscape as a manmade construct: an artefact of the way we live, a projection of human actions, ideals and aspirations onto the horizon. Landscape is where the human and the natural worlds connect, and in Gohlke’s view, humanity’s power is limited, fragile and temporary. 

These topographic photos show a connection between nature and the human aspect called juxtaposition. These two differences join together to create contrast and show how humans and nature always conjoin throughout life.