Robert Adams is an American photographer who was focused on changing the landscape of the American West, He participated in the exhibition New Topographics in 1975 which gained him recognition and even resulted into him winning a few awards.

Early life

Robert Adams moved with his family multiple times throughout his childhood, he contracted polio at the age of 12 in 1949 but was able to make a healthy recovery. Adams enrolled in the University of Colorado in 1955 for his first year and then transferred to the University of Redlands California the next year where he received his PhD in English Literature. In 1963 he moved back to Colorado where he began teaching English at Colorado College and in that same year he decided to purchase a 35mm camera which he used to take pictures of nature and architecture. He learned photographic techniques from Myron Wood who was a professional photographer who lived in Colorado and in 1966 he decided to only teach part time in order to devote more of his time to photography. Around 1970 he began working as a full-time photographer.

New Topographic

Roberts Adams took part of the New Topographic Exhibition and ended up having his photos presented alongside ten other contemporary photographers, Robert Adams photos typically consisted of suburban neighbourhoods which consisted of rows or groups of houses close together or close up. Robert Adams was probably so invested into New Topographic photography as he was inspired by the man-made structures and the shift of the natural world around them slowly being replaced by big groups of buildings and houses.

Image Analysis

Technical

With this image we can see that the photo uses natural light and it has a good level of exposure as all areas of the photos are easily visible. The aperture used in this image is probably a Wide Angle in order to capture the mobile homes in the lower part of the image and to also capture the mountains in the upper part of the image. This photo may have also used a long shutter speed as it looks like the sun may not be projecting too much light due to how cloudy the sky is in this photo. The Photo also looks like it uses a low ISO setting as there is a minimal amount of grain in the image.

Visual

The image is taken in a black and white colour scheme which utilises a wide range of tones, for example we can see the shadows in the bottom of the mobile homes are very black while the colour of the walls of the mobile homes are very white which shows us the contrast of light that can be seen around the image. Texture can also be seen in this image like the walls of the mobile home where you can see the line patterns of the metal or the roof of the mobile homes where you could presumably see the build up of dirt. The view point of the image you would assume to be around the bottom of the image as the image is about new Topographics so the main focus would be on the mobile homes however Robert Adams purposely left the mountains in the background of the image to shift the persons eyes more towards that area to show them the divide between the natural landscape and the human made structures. Robert Adams even framed the image in a way so that the mobile homes would only take up one half of the image and the mountains would take up another half of the image.

Contextual

This photo taken by Robert Adams was a part of the New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape Exhibition. The main aim of the New Topographic was to show the change from the natural landscapes around us to the shift towards man made structures. These photos focused heavily on industrial buildings, new homes, neighbourhoods, newly constructed roads and anything else relating to the changes happening to the natural landscape.

Conceptual

Robert Adams photo (particularly this one) was different compared to the other photographers who took photos for the new Topographics. Robert Adams instead of doing a close up shot of the man made structures, he instead decided to only capture the structures as half of the image while the other half of the image was occupied by the big mountain in the background. By doing this it makes his image more meaningful as he’s not just capturing the man made structure dead on but instead he is making a comparison in a way, by showing the natural landscape in the background created with no human intervention that is now starting to be built on and will soon become something which could remove the natural aspect of the landscape.

The new Topographics was a term made by William Jenkins which was used to describe a group of American photographers whose photos had a similar banal aesthetic. in that they were formal and mostly taken in black and white, there photos also consisted of the urban landscape around them.

The New Topographics mostly focused on Man-altered landscapes such as homes packed together, industrial buildings, roads and anything that disrupted the view or area of natural landscapes.

Historical context

The New Topographics were mostly made in response to the fast increasing suburbanised world around them. Topographic photos were taken around the 70s and the historical context of why America were becoming more suburban is that in post-war America, to accommodate all the returning soldiers coming home and to keep up with the new innovations in the industrial sector, they decided to build more buildings and more homes as well as more roads so vehicles (which were rising in popularity more and more) could drive along these paths. As a result it ended up transforming areas, which were previously natural and contained good views of the landscape ahead into buildings and roads which expanded for 100s of miles in each direction which resulted into landscapes beyond these buildings being barley visible and big natural areas being removed in order to build these man made structures.

Why were Photographers interested in these structures?

Most photographers took pictures of these manmade structures to show the growing unease of how natural landscapes were being replaced and removed by industrial development. Places once natural and untouched were now cleared and terraformed in order to make space for buildings and roads which would be placed instead.

Artist Reference – Stephen Shore

Technical

The photo uses natural daylight in this image which lights the image up quite strongly as their is no clouds in the sky to cover up the suns light. You can also see the image uses a slow shutter speed as we can see the cars on the left side of the image appear quite blurry. The temperature of the lighting is cold as the image contains more of a blue hue than a yellow hue of colour. We can also see that due to the way the lighting is projecting towards the object, it ends up creating hard edged shadows of the objects/structures in the image.

Visual

With this photo you can see the hard edged shadows that form around the objects and structures. The image is aligned in a specific manner that it resembles some aspects of the rule of thirds. We can also notice that starting from the top of the image with the bright blue skies and then moving towards the bottom half of the image that it starts to become more cluttered with buildings, signs and lamp posts obstructing the view ahead. The photo is in a square format which allows the focus of the image to be more concentrated towards the bottom and the picture appears to be pointed towards nature by the way some objects are pointed like the signs or the direction the cars are driving towards.

Contextual

This picture might be focused on the achievement of cars and how prices for them have gone down meaning lots more people are able to afford them and drive hundreds of miles and have the freedom to go anywhere. We can also see nationalism on the gas station sign as it uses the iconic colours of the American flag.

Conceptual

This image might be showing us the gradual change from natural landscapes to man-made structures which is starting to benefit the majority of people. From the cheap cars to the wide range of options of where to go for food or shopping in town areas. This photo could also be seen as a depicting the start of the American dream and how it looks to live in America.

On the havre des pas walk I made sure to take multiples images from one place, starting from taking pictures on the left side and slowly taking more and more as I turned the camera towards the right. This technique is what allows you to form panoramic images which can then later be presented as physcial images or edited in photoshop in order to extend the images size and what you want to be visible in the image.

My Images:

With my images I have made sure to take as many as I could while going from left to right in order to achieve a wide panoramic image. The results ended up looking great as now you are able to get a bigger picture of whats around the area but also by joining the images together it allows for the image to look even more appealing as a panoramic photo and it also allows you to capture more than one interesting area in a photo as long as its nearby.

A Panoramic image is a technique of taking a photo of what’s in front of you but capturing it at a wide angle. The difference between a wide angle photo and a Panoramic is that a Panoramic usually consists of multiple photos merged together that form a long wide angle strip. This wide strip photo would then show you a expansive view of your shot like with a Landscape it would show the full scenery around you. Wide angle photography in the other hand are different as it typically uses a wide lens that allows you to take a wide angle picture, however wide angle photos have a limit and they cannot capture the amount of detail and area that a panoramic image can achieve.

How do I create a Panoramic Landscape?

To create a Panoramic Landscape you can either take a photo of the landscape with your camera that has a Panoramic mode or if your camera does not contain that mode then the traditional method would be to take pictures of your landscape but making sure you take it from all angles from left to right to top to bottom, making sure you leave enough room for the images to overlap. Once you take all these pictures you can insert them into a program like Photoshop or Lightroom and there should be an option to Photo merge them into a Panoramic image. Then you just adjust the images and edit them to your preference and then you should have a Panoramic Landscape.

David Hockney

David Hockney was a painter and a photographer who was well known for his work and was considered one of the most influential British artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Around the early 20th century he decided to experiment with joiner photographs, these photographs consisted of usually a place or a subject that had photos taken close up instead of far away. By taking multiple close up photos (around 700+ photos) it would then allow him to merge them together to create a full photograph. The difference from a joiner photograph and a full photograph is that joiners allow you to capture details you would never spot on the first time of taking your images. So by taking multiple photos over a span of a few days close up and capturing all the little details and then merging all the photos together you end up creating a piece that not only looks unique but also contains every small detail that is easily viewable which can also make your image look more appealing compared to just a regular image taken from further away where you wouldn’t usually spot those small things.

My Photoshoot is inspired by Ansel Adams and the work that he did. To achieve similar images like these I prioritised on taking pictures of jerseys coast, jerseys coast was perfect as I was able to create similar images like Ansel Adams by taking photos of the cliff side.

Contact Sheet

There were many images that I liked but the majority I felt weren’t up to the standards that I was looking for. Some pictures that were not selected for use were either low light which was due to the exposure settings not being set right or I was not satisfied with the view that I captured. The images that I did select I was very happy with as it matched Ansel Adams style and the view or the angle the photo was taken was perfect for the standards that I had set.

My Top Choices

I have selected these photos as my top choices as I believe that they look the most appealing, I also think that they match up closely to Ansel Adams style, they also have lots of potential especially when edited as I will be able to bring out more details and enhance things like the lighting or shadows to make the photo become more effective and striking to the peoples eye.

Editing Process

Photo #1

With this photo I converted it into a HDR image in order to bring back details in the sky and the lighting from the sun that was hitting the floor. To further enhance this image I adjusted the vibrancy and dehaze to make the image look more colourful, I also adjusted the brightness to make the image more brighter so that the details and the scene of the photo looked more appealing to look at. I decided to leave this image in colour as I believe that it looks more appealing in colour than in black and white.

Photo #2

With this photo I adjusted the exposure and brightness settings in order to brighten up the image as there were some areas which were underexposed so by adjusting those settings it helped to brighten up those areas and made it much clearer to view. I also adjusted the vibrancy and saturation to bring out more colour on that big patch of grass and the plants at the top which in my opinion helps to bring out more detail and clarity in those areas.

Photo #3

With this photo I decided to set it to a black and white colour scheme to match with Ansel Adams photos but also because I feel that it comes off more effective and appealing in black and white rather than colour. The only sliders I adjusted was the black and white in order to achieve that dramatic effect that Ansel Adams achieves with his photos. I adjusted the blacks all the way down in order to make the dark areas even more darker and adjusted the white slightly to brighten up the lighter areas so its more detailed and clearer to view.

Photo #4

With this photo I also decided to set it in black and white as I believe that it looks more appealing and eye catching. I adjusted the black and whites by lowering the black levels significantly and turning up the white levels slightly. I also lowered the shadows to make those dark areas even darker and turned up the brightness to bring more light out around the illuminated rocks and the sky. This photo is one of my favourites as I believe that it utilises the zone system well and I also think that it looks the most dramatic which was my aim for these photos.

Photo #5

With this photo I decided to set it in black and white as I believe that it looks objectively better than in colour. I adjusted many sliders in this photo in order to achieve this final result, the photo to begin with was slightly over exposed and some bright areas ended up being too dark like around the cliff. To fix these issues I made the photo into a HDR image which brought some details out in the photo, fixed some of the areas that were supposed to be brighter and it fixed some of the overexposed areas. After fixing these issues I made it black and white and adjusted the black levels all the way down as well as decreasing the shadows slightly to make those dark areas darker, next I adjusted the brightness and contrast to brighten up the image overall to make it clearer to see and adjusted the contrast up to ensure that the shadows were truly dark. Its important that the darker areas of the photos are really black to utilise the zone system but to also achieve that dramatic effect in my images.

Final Images

Overall I think that my final images have turned out to look really good and presentable. The images in colour capture the landscape really well with the detail of the ground and the natural sunlight being shown clearly and the vibrant colours in the grass and the sea have been displayed beautifully. The images in black and white contains amazing characteristics with most of them utilising a dramatic black and white colour scheme to match Ansel Adams style but also utilising the zone system well with having the bright areas of the photo being really white and the darker areas like the shadows being really black making the images more effective and inviting to look at. The landscapes in the photo were perfect for this project as its similar in a sense to the type of images Ansel Adams took but it also allowed me to edit them and utilise methods like the zone system and HDR which really improved the quality and maximised the potential of these images.

Exposure Bracketing is the process of taking multiple pictures in the same scene with different exposure levels, from really low exposure to really high exposure. You then would use those series of photos to blend and mix them together which in return should create a photo with a much higher dynamic range where it will give you all the details you will ever need.

Exposure Bracketing works very well with still images like landscapes which can help create a HDR Photo that will retain all the details in the images. Exposure Bracketing is not really useful in moving images as if you merge them to make a HDR Photo then you might see some weird effects and it wont be as effective.

Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation allows you to override the automatic exposure adjustments your camera makes in situation’s where light is either really bright, dark or uneven. It basically allows you to adjust the brightness of your image manually.

HDR

HDR or High Dynamic Range is a way to capture the lightest detail and darkest detail of a photo, you would typically use Exposure Bracketing to gain a series of high and low exposure photos which you could then merge together to make a HDR Photo.

How does HDR work?

It works by grabbing the details captured from the multiple photos taken in different exposures, for example lets say you take a picture that has some intense shadows and the bright blue sky. With a normal automatic exposure the camera would try to capture all the light and shadows but at the price of sacrificing detail and the amount of light in those certain areas. However by using multiple exposures with Exposure Bracketing it allows you to get the best detail of the sky with the low exposure image and the best detail of whatever is around or in the shadows in the high exposure image. You would then merge the low and high exposure photos together in a program (for example Lightroom) which would then take the best details out of the low exposure image and the best details out of the high exposure image and merge them together to make a HDR Photo with all the details and light being shown to its fullest potential.

My HDR Photos attempt

Before

After

We can see with the before image that the colours are lacking as well as details like the sky or water are quite overexposed due to it being too bright outside. But changing the image into a HDR Photo has helped to bring the water and sky back into the image and it has made it more detailed and viewable with the waves in the water now being viewable as well as the clouds in the sky which is also now viewable. it has also made the colours more vibrant however i did turn up the vibrancy a bit more to capture more detail in those bright colours.

Before

After

We can see with the before image that the sky was quite overexposed with half of the clouds being hidden, we can also see that some details around the rocks in the sea were quite dark. But by changing it into a HDR Photo we can now see that the rocks are more detailed and the clouds in the sky are fully viewable. I have also changed the vibrancy of the image and the saturation in order to brighten up the image and add more colour as well as to help bring more detail into the clouds and rocks at the bottom.

Before

After

We can see with the before image that the cliffs and the rocks at the bottom are quite dark, we can also see the grass and the plants lack colour and detail. We can also see the sky which appears to be overexposed with the clouds being barley visible. With the after image we can now see that the cliffs and rocks at the bottom have brightened up making the image have more detail and colour, we can also see that the plants now have more detail added as well with more colour which was achieved by adjusting the saturation and vibrancy of the image. The sky was also more visible with the after image and to make it stand out more I adjusted the haze to try and bring out as much detail as I could.

Image:

Technical

This photo looks like it most likely uses natural daylight for its source of lighting as the photo was taken quite far away, it also looks like it includes a good level of exposure as the image is well lit while still maintaining detail around the image. The contrast used around the image especially the sky help to enhance the image and bring out more detail, especially around the top of the mountain and the sky as it creates a dramatic effect while allowing for the detail of the jagged rocks to be viewable. This photo also looks like it uses a wide angle lens with a very small aperture to capture the wide area of the mountain while also keeping most things in frame sharp and in focus. The photo looks like it uses a long shutter speed in order to capture the right amount of light to ensure the photo is well exposed. The photo appears to have minimal grain as well as using various amounts of tones in the tonal range.

Visual

The photo uses a black and white colour scheme with various of tones being used throughout the image which can enhance the detail around some parts like the mountains rock texture or the snow and trees at the bottom of the mountain. We can also see that the image shows a lot of texture as I mentioned before, in areas like the left lower side of the mountain we can see that the jagged edges are easily viewable and identifiable or on the right side of the mountain at the cliff edge where we are able to see the cracks in the rocks and the trees in the distance. The main view point of the image is the half dome and Ansel Adams was able to make it the main view point of the image by using techniques like composition to make the half dome take up most of the image. We can also see that the sky also includes lots of detail as Ansel Adams used colour filters to help with the creation of this photo, by the sky using a dark tone it helps capture that horizon in the background from the bottom of the sky being a lighter shade to the top of the sky being a darker shade.

Contextual

The picture is named Monolith, The Face Of Half Dome and it was taken in Yosemite. This image has a lot of history as it wasn’t the first time Ansel Adams had taken a picture of this half dome. At the age 14 Ansel had visited this same spot on a family trip to Yosemite carrying his Brand-new Kodak Brownie Camera, He snapped several pictures of the Half Dome including one taken upside down on accident but it resulted into it being one of his favourite images of the Half Dome. A decade later he returned to this spot with his fiancée and three close friends where they climbed about more than 3500 feet above Yosemite Valley, Encountering this spot again they decided to set up the cameras and take photographs of the Face Of The Half Dome. He Experimented with a yellow filter at first but it didn’t feel quite as effective as he hoped so he swapped it with a dark red filter which darkened the sky and produced dark shadows and bright light which resulted into the image being the final one he decided to use for his piece named the Monolith, the Face Of Half Dome. It is one of his most famous images and an iconic depiction of one of the most unique spots in the American wilderness.

Conceptual

Ansel Adams took this image to show his passion for not only photography but wildlife. Ansel Adams has been to Yosemite ever since he was young and repeatedly came back by joining the Sierra Club and doing tour groups during summers. Nature or Yosemite in particular served as a place of healing for Ansel Adams who survived the deadly Spanish influenza in 1919 and dedicated himself to try and preserve the wildlife and nature of the Yosemite Valley.

Ansel Easton Adams was a American Landscape Photographer and environmentalist who was well known for his black and white images of the American west. He also helped found a photography group called F/64 which was an association of photographers who were advocating for ‘pure’ photography (photos that attempted to depict a scene or a subject in sharp focus and detail).

Childhood

Ansel Adams was an only child growing up and was born when his mother was nearly in her forty’s, with his relatively elderly parents, his family history and other factors, it all combined to create an environment which was Victorian and both socially and emotionally traditional. Due to his natural shyness, certain intensity of intelligence combined with his broken nose (which was caused by his face being smashed against a wall during the san Francisco earthquake) this caused Adams to have difficulties when trying to fit in at school. Later in life he was then diagnosed as hyperactive with the possibility of having dyslexia alongside that. After going in and out of various schools and getting tutored by his family he did manage to get a legit diploma from the Mrs Kate M Wilkins private school. He learned piano in his youth but unfortunately could not pursue it professionally due to not being cut out for it but when he discovered photography he quickly found a passion for it and dedicated all his time towards it.

Inspiration for Photography

The Yosemite National Park was Adams inspiration for his photography career, using the camera lens and looking through the Yosemite’s rock, trees, and rivers. All he could see was art and it sparked more inspiration and love for his photography hobby and work.

Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is an American environmental organization whose mission is to explore, enjoy and protect the wild places of earth. Ansel Adams in 1927 went out on the Sierra Clubs annual outing (known as the High Trip) which resulted into one of his most famous images named Monolith, The Face of Half Dome. This image would then make him well known and popular to the world of photographers. The year after he ended up becoming the Sierra Clubs official photographer. By 1930, Ansel Adams began to deploy his photography in the cause of wilderness preservation.

Ansel Adams in 1934 was elected as a member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club was seeking to create a national park in the Kings Canyon region of the Sierra Nevada and this was because people wanted to use the water to generate electricity which could destroy the nature around it and possibly pollute the canyon, so by creating a national park it prevents anyone from being able to use that land for industrial purposes. Ansel Adams all the way in California had to find a way to convince congressmen back in Washington to turn the canyon into a national park and he achieved this by carrying and showing his portfolio to the heads of the national park service to show them why they should make the canyon a national park. however the first time they tried to request it to be a national park they were told it couldn’t be approved. After hearing this information he created an impressive and limited edition book called the Sierra Nevada: The John Muir Trail. The book contained some of his best photos taken at the sierra club and this book ultimately ended up attracting President officials which then ended up into them finally making the canyon an approved national park by 1940.

Presidential Medal

Ansel Adams was a conservationist and the photos he took of Yosemite helped secure the designation of those lands as national parks, his work helped expand the national park system and his work was then later recognised by presidential officials who ended up awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980.

Ansel Adams Visualisation

The meaning of Visualisation is “the concept of interpreting a scene and deciding on the final shot before pressing the shutter”. Ansel Adams referred to this as Taking place within the minds eye, Adams with his photography made sure that he assessed his subject and chose the most important attributes to highlight and keep or show in the frame of the photo. To capture the detail and the effects he was looking for in his images he would often resort to using camera filters knowing that it would allow him to adjust the dark or lightness of the sky or cliffs that surrounded him. These filters helped Ansel Adams achieve the dramatic effect he was seeking in his images.

Ansel Adams Zone System

Ansel Adams used his own Zone system in order to represent the gradation of all the different tonal values you would see in black and white images. With Zone 0 being pure black, Zone 5 being middle grey and Zone 10 being pure white. The Zone system would help control the exposure of the image and how it was developed in order to achieve the best results of the photo you have taken.

What is Romanticism?

Romanticism is a movement in the arts and literature which was originated in the late 18^th century. Emphasizing inspiration, subjectivity and the primacy of the individual.

In Photography Romanticism is used in contrast with landscapes. Romantic landscapes celebrate the instinctive, imaginative and purity of nature. It can also evoke deep feelings of emotion and can add a deeper meaning to the images taken. 

Romanticism was a reaction against the spread of industrialism, as well as a criticism of the aristocratic social and political norms. So it was then used to forward peoples attention to nature.

From the late 18th to mid-19th centuries, Romanticism was used to emphasise emotion, nature and individualism, which ended up contrasting strongly with Enlightenment due to Enlightenments focus being more on reason and universalism compared to Romanticisms which was the celebration of the individual and honouring nature.

John Constable

John constable created landscape paintings before they were known as a genre, One of his best pieces named Hay Wain (originally named “noon”) was painted of the River Stour in England. The Canvas used was large compared to typical landscapes at the time, This was part of Constables ‘Six-Footers’ series due to the size of the canvases used. Constables father owned the Flat ford Mill and the house you can see in the background of the landscape belonged to a neighbour Willy Lot who was said to be born in that house. John Constable was always very passionate about his paintings as he tries to paint areas or locations that he knows very well (Hay Wain being one of them) which helped to make his landscapes more meaningful and special. John Constable painted the piece using his memory and not in person with the view in his sight which makes the landscape he created even more impressive. Hay Wain was different to every other landscapes at the time especially with his use of a rough surface which allowed the textures to gain more details which made certain areas in the landscape like the water feel “real” and made the overall image look more realistic compared to other landscapes of that time period.

The Sublime

The Sublime is a feeling associated with strong emotions both positive and negative that are felt in front of nature. For example waterfalls which are typically seen as beautiful but at the same time terrifying with all the rocks protruding out the ground and the cliff which could be dangerous if anything were to ever move/fall at any time.

Edmund Buke defined sublime as an “an artistic effect productive of the strongest emotion the mind is capable of feeling”. Which basically is describing how our minds determine the feelings towards images, for sublime images (specifically landscapes) typically the mind would find the image both pleasing to look at but at the same time fearful of whatever danger could be into play.

J.M.W Turner

J.M.W Turner is a English romantic painter who was a sublime artist, He started making sublime artwork to show his viewers the feelings of awe and wonder that he experienced when tackling the majesty of nature. His paintings (made usually with oil paintings and water colours) often included dramatic scenes, for example some of his work consists of the rough sea with boats sailing creating this amazing view of the sky and the sea but making you feel uneasy with the boats that appear to be on the tipping point of flipping over.

Landscapes is the visible features of an area of land which is often seen for their aesthetic appeal, This can be areas like forests, rivers, cities skylines, mountains and anything that includes a wide view and natural elements can be considered as a Landscape. Landscapes started to become emerged in the western culture with the growth of the natural world which was sparked by the renaissance around in the 16th century. And by the 17th century the classical landscape was introduced, these landscapes were influenced by classical antiquity and were thought to provide an ideal landscape to think of Arcadia which is a legendary place in ancient Greece which is well known for its quiet pastoral beauty.

Landscapes then had a sudden rise in the late 18th century to 19th century, this was because the industrial revolution was starting to alter the traditions of rural life. Which then prompted people to move away from more classic and idealised landscapes and shift their focus into creating landscapes which were more focused on directly nature which is a practice known as plein air painting. This new focus on landscapes ended up revealing a new generation of painters which would introduce their own techniques to landscape paintings.

Landscape Photography was introduced in the 19th century and the earliest known photo taken of a landscape was between the years 1826 and 1827. It was a urban landscape photo taking by a French inventor by the name of Nicephore Niepce who was also the first person to make a permanent photographic image with the camera obscura. This first landscape image would then continue to shape the future of Landscape Photography to what it has now become today where it is now more advanced and more detailed thanks to modern technologies and innovations.