Ansel Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black and white images of the American West. He is also perhaps the most widely known and beloved photographer in the history of the United States; the popularity of his work has only increased since his death. Adams’s most important work was devoted to what was or appeared to be the country’s remaining fragments of untouched wilderness, especially in national parks and other protected areas of the American West. He was also a vigorous and outspoken leader of the conservation movement.
The Zone System
The 11 zones in Ansel Adams’ system were defined to represent the gradation of all the different tonal values you would see in a black and white print, with zone 5 being middle grey, zone 0 being pure black, with no detail, and zone 10 being pure white, with no detail.
Visualisation
Ansel Adams describes it as the ability to see the scene you photograph and recreate in your mind the print you will produce. Meaning see your developed image, relying on the information you receive from the scene and on your developing intentions.
Romanticism is an artistic and intellectual movement which is characterised by its emphasis on emotion and individualism as well as glorifying nature and the past, preferring the medieval over classical. Romanticism began in Europe near the end of the 18th century in approximately 1770, during a time of war with the French Revolution, which fuelled it. The romantic movement was primarily a reaction against the scientific rationalisation of nature and a revolt against the restrained emotional nature and the overwhelming changes in society introduced by industrialisation. For most of the Western world, its peak was approximately 1800 to 1850.
The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault, 1819
A main characteristic of romanticism is the deepened appreciation towards nature. There is a range of romantic landscapes which portray and praise nature for its ferociousness and lack of mercy, or it being beautiful and serene.
What is the Sublime?
Caspar David Friedrich, 1818
Sublime is described by Edmund Burke as an artistic effect that is “the strongest passion”, and in all cases terror and fear is the ruling principle. Furthermore, the sublime is associated with evoking the feeling of the strongest emotion that the mind is capable of experiencing, usually surrounding nature, which inspires great awe and terror knowing you are smaller and insignificant in comparison and at the mercy of nature.
