Ansel Adams (February 20, 1902 – April 22, 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West, especially in Yosemite National Park. One of his most famous photographs was Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California.
I wonder what the master landscape photographer would make of the digital imaging Photoshop internet world of computers and pixels?
I think he’d love it.
The Tetons and the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming 1942
With Fred Archer, Adams developed the Zone System as a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. The resulting clarity and depth characterized his photographs and the work of those to whom he taught the system. Adams primarily used large-format cameras, despite their size, weight, setup time and film cost, because their high resolution helped ensure sharpness in his images.
Adams founded the Group f/64 (the term f/64 refers to the smallest aperture setting on a large format camera, which gives maximum depth of field) along with fellow photographers Edward Weston and Imogen Cunningham, which in turn created the Museum of Modern Art’s department of photography.
Adams’s timeless and visually stunning photographs are reproduced on calendars, posters, and in books, making his photographs widely recognizable.
Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley 1960
During my early days learning photography, I remember studying Ansel Adams’s images in books. Apart from being a wonderful photographer he was also a master technician. He would spend countless hours developing and printing his images, always pushing the technology as far as he could. It’s not widely realised that Ansel Adams was collaborating with Dr. Edwin Land, the inventor of what was to become the Polaroid process (early Polaroid cameras were known as “Land Cameras”) . In the 1950′s research and development in instant analog photography progressed as Ansel Adams worked as a consultant to Polaroid, so even in the 50′s he was involved in cutting edge technologies, trying new products. He only ever cared about the image, not the tools used to make it.
Quotes from Ansel Adams
Most of the following words from Ansel Adams ring as true today as they did in his era and give a window into the artistic sensibilities of the man.
- “In my mind’s eye, I visualize how a particular sight and feeling will appear on a print. If it excites me, there is a good chance it will make a good photograph. It is an intuitive sense, an ability that comes from a lot of practice.”
- “Landscape photography is the supreme test of the photographer – and often the supreme disappointment.”
- “Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”
- “When I’m ready to make a photograph, I think I quite obviously see in my minds eye something that is not literally there in the true meaning of the word. I’m interested in something which is built up from within, rather than just extracted from without.”
- “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
He learned the tools of his day to create memorable pictures and I reckon Ansel Adams would have taken digital imaging in his stride, would have been a master of the histogram and a master of the power Photoshop brings to picture making today.
I see the legacy of his images and the inspiration on today’s best landscape photographers.