Ansel Adams – attention to detail is everything

Ansel Adams was one of the great photographers of the 20th century. Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco and began to take photographs in the High Sierra and Yosemite National Park, with which much of his name is permanently associated; he became a professional photographer in 1930.

Audiences familiar with his work are exposed to a systematic and deliberate conception of the wilderness, the United States national parks and his ultimate inspiration Yosemite.  No words, no phrases can adequately convey the experience of viewing an Ansel Adams photograph.

In his youth, Adams was trained as a musician.  This discipline expresses itself in his photography, which sometimes projects a simple tune’s lyrical simplicity.  It was applied to his photography as well as its complexity and mathematical precision.  He worked out a careful “zone system” of light readings, to be certain he achieved the perfect balance of tones – from through many greys to black – in his photographs.  He studied the films and print processes and the papers available to him and made demands on the manufacturers of these things to give photographers what they needed

A.nsel Adams Books

Black and white

His photographs were all in black and white because that was what was available to him and what he had learned.  His photographs are not only records of intense moments in nature but Adams’s reverence for those moments, of his spiritual involvement with his subject.

Possessed ‘Prevision’

The ability to capture the fleeting moment of light is the artistry of Ansel Adams.  Only at one moment of one day a year will the sun rake the cliff with just those tones and simultaneously spotlight those trees.  Adams had vast patience and self-discipline to prepare for these moments.  It was this gift that Adams was said to possess what was called a “prevision.”  I think, though, he perfected the ability to witness genuinely.

Monolith the Face of Half Dome

Moon and Half Dome

Monolith, the Face of Half Dome, is a classic Adams shot in Yosemite in 1927. The image is a powerful display of stone, sky and snow: richly detailed on the rock surface, dark and dense in the sky, and pure white in the fronting snow. This dramatic range of tones, blended with an unwavering sense of composition, makes Adams a photographer admired by those passionate about the visual medium. Undoubtedly, Ansel Adams was one of the great photographers of the twentieth century.

Aspens Northern New Mexico

Adams, “Aspens”, Northern New Mexico, is a perfect example of his darkroom expertise.  Through skilful manipulation of the printing process, Adams transformed a common forest glade by placing half a dozen slender aspens in bold relief.

‘Moonrise, Henandez, New Mexico’

Adams made about 1000 prints of ‘Moonrise’ during his lifetime.  He would not let anyone else print it, and making ‘Moonrises’ took him away from his other work.  Adams took a photograph when he was on a commercial trip.  He wrote that he “knew it was special when he released the shutter, but I never anticipated its reception over the decades.”

In 1937 Ansel Adams went on a month-long camping trip with a small group of friends, including Orville Cox and Georgia O’Keefe.  The result, among other things, was the superb image of Cox and O’Keefe.

Rose and Driftwood

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