Ansel Adams

There is much to say about Ansel Adams, possibly the most famous and brilliant of all landscape photographers, he captured the beauty of the American landscape in black and white and has left us with an awe-inspiring legacy.

Ansel Adams, born 1902 in San Francisco to an affluent family, was raised in a conservative almost Victorian environment, struggled to fit in a school, possibly suffered with dyslexia and ended up being home-tutored by his Father resulting in a fairly ‘solitary’ childhood.

Photography overtook music as his primary vocation.  He spent much time in Yosemite and the Sierra Nevada nurturing his love of nature and using the Kodak No.1 Box Brownie that was a gift from his parents.

After meeting photographer Paul Strand in 1930 and being inspired by his images,  Ansell decided to pursue ‘straight photography’ rather than the pictorial style he had favoured.  Ansell’s work became increasingly recognised during the 30’s but this did not make him rich, he was forced to work as a commercial photographer to make ends meet.

Inspired by nature and a passionate environmentalist he fought tirelessly against anything that would damage the world around him and in particular the national park system.

Technically he was extremely talented, he worked long hours for weeks on end and rarely took any holiday or time off, except to return to his beloved Yosemite.  He developed the ‘zone system’ which was a way ‘to determine proper exposure and contrast of the final print’, he also produced 10 volumes of technical manuals   which are regarded as ‘the most influential books ever written on the subject’.

 

The image below is one of many that I find truly captivating, called 'Tetons and the Snake River' taken in 1942,  this image was taken while Ansel was employed by the US Government, charged with photographing National Parks, it was also carried on one of the Voyager Spacecraft along with another 114 photographs intended to convey 'life on earth' to an alien civilisation!   There is such depth to this image it appears never-ending, I feel that you could just fall into it.

The image below is named 'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico' taken in 1941, this is one of, if not the most popular of Ansel's photographs. Taken on the way home after a disappointing day of photography, he 'glanced left' and spotted what you are now looking at!  What can you say?  Truly amazing, the depth of the image again makes you feel like there is no end to the scene, when you look at this it's so easy to imagine that you're there ...

 

Ansel Adams is king of the landscape photograph and you cannot be anything other than totally inspired by his work.  I find it impossible to single out one or two images as every image is genius. It's almost a case of what can you say? ..... I wonder if he ever took any 'bad images' and if he did, were they still brilliant?