Photographer linked to personal investigation- Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams-Research

Ansel Adams was a photographer, writer, lecturer and environmentalist, born in California 1902. He didn't really fit in at school and so he was tutored at home by his dad and aunt. When he was 12 he taught himself to play piano, which was his primary occupation until 1920. He then gave up music for photography, when his parents gave him his first camera, a kodak no.1 box brownie. He then joined Sierra club which was vital to his early success as a photographer, as his first published photographers appeared in their 1922 bulletin. Group f/36 was founded in 1932. The members of the group included Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, John Paul Edwards, Preston Holder, Consuelo Kanaga, Alma Lavenson, Sonya Noskowiak, Henry Swift, Willard Van Dyke, Brett Weston and Edward Weston, even though the group was short lived it brought the west coast vision of straight photography to national attention and influence.Their images were characterised by a clear, sharp-focus aesthetic, which was at odds with the pictoralist methods in fashion at the time. The name f.64 refers to the smallest aperture on a camera, used by the group because it provided the greatest depth of field, allowing for much of the photograph to be in sharp focus. Perhaps the overarching vision of the group was their belief in the camera as a passive observer of the world, better able to depict life as it really was because it did not project personal prejudices. Adam started to struggle finically and so he was compelled to spend a lot of his time as a commercial photographer. Soon after he developed the famous 'zone system' of controlling and relating exposure and development, which allowed photographers to to visualise an image and produce a photo that matched and expressed that same visualisation. Because of Ansel's great interest in the environment and wilderness, his images were seen as symbols and veritable icons of wild America. Even though his black and white images were not truly realistic documents of nature, he tended to intensify  the psychological experience of natural beauty by using filters. Ansel was criticised for failing to include any sign of humanity within his work. For example Henri Cartier-Bresson commented that " the world is falling to pieces and all Adams and Weston photograph is rocks and trees". So he was seen as a photographer of an idealised wilderness that no longer exists. Ansel would normally use large format view cameras e.g 8x10 or 4x5 view cameras. The front and rear standards can move in various ways relative to each other, this provides control over focus, depth of field, and perspective and the camera is usually used on a tripod allowing no affects from the shakiness from hands..He also used filters quite frequently that gave more of an unrealistic view of the scene.

 

(Tenaya creek, Dogwood, Rain)

Before coming across this creek, Ansel was looking for dogwood flowers to capture photos of in Yosemite park, California. To take this photo of the creek, Ansel used his 8x10 camera as he would the majority of the time. During the time of taking this exact photo light rain started to fall and so Ansel used the focusing cloth to keep rain off the camera. Even though there was light rainfall, Ansel was still able to have an exposure of 1/2 a second, which gives a light blurriness to the flowing water stream. Also because of the rain there is more detail and richness within the photo. To me this photo looks more like a painting than a photo, just because of the general composure of the photo it doesn't really have much of a foreground and background separated, even though the background that appears to be mountains, it still mores into on because of the colouring of the photo and the rain. This photo interested me because of how its of a creek and not just normal woodland or a tree. So the creek really draws me in and to me is the part of the photo that looks most like a painting, but thats because of the expire time that Ansel used. I also think that from what i can recognise are the dogwood flowers, are the leaves that come off of the tree in the left section the photo, because these leaves are considerably brighter compared to other leaves in the photo. Because of tho brightness they are more visible and to me makes this photo similar to the photo bellow of the aspen trees because those too stood out from the rest of the trees. From the places where i took my second shoot, there was a river there, but you could only see or get the river if you went through trees, which then becomes very dark because you are completely surrounded by trees. So even though i had water i couldn't quite capture a similar photo that would show how the style i had taken it in was inspired by Ansel's work.

(Aspens, New Mexico, 1958)

This photo is of Aspen trees, Aspen trees are known as the "shivering tree" as the leaves are thought to continuously tremble. Ansel was driving through the mountains with some of his assistants when they came across these aspens in mellow golden autumn tints. For this photo Ansel used one of his larger cameras that he regularly used, the 8x10" plate camera. To capture both of theses images the way he did, Ansel had to ensure that there were no areas of the sky that would've been bright areas, causing a distraction, so he used the tall trees that are visible as a background so that the sky couldn't intrude from behind. Ansel was able to use an exposure of 1 second because there was no breeze, even though aspen leaves do shake in only the slightest winds. Ansel used a deep yellow filter to brighten the leaves and a negative developer so that he could produce this images and not the representation of how the actual scene was. As the leave stand out amongst the background of the dark trees that seem to appear as they don't end and go off onto an endless black background. The filter gave the Aspen tree a chance to appear very vibrant against it, even though this photo appears to be in black and white, but the leaves do almost loo like they are yellow. To me both of theses images give off an eery effect because of the very dark tones in both of this image, especially the vertical photo with all of the trees in a line that continues into the dark, but the audience doesn't know how far that line of trees go. With the photo on the right the thing that most catches my eye in the photo is the whole contrast that is going on with the darkness of the black background against the white trees. Out of both of the photos the right one does catch my attention more, because of the contrast between the light and the dark. But when i look at both of the photos i feel like i prefer the left on because of how much the tree that appears yellow stands out from the other trees, even though there is another aspen tree visible, the one with the most leaves still stands more because of its vibrancy. Because the photos are of the exact same area, just a vertical and a landscape version. The photos have almost the same features, for example both have a lower level of the grass at the bottom and the mid-level of the trees, and with the left photo the leaves from the taller trees are slightly visible on the top level. So these two photos are a good example of how when you change you perspective on something the whole meaning behind it can change. So to me the right vertical photo is far more eery than the left photo because its just of the branches which are white against the dark background, where as the left photo has the yellow hints from the leaves and the tone of the photo is a bit more brighter than the right photo. I would like to try and capture a photo like this within my shoots as i know some places with trees like these, but i would have to edit them on photoshop to get the tones that Ansel achieved, by blocking out the sky.

(Rose and driftwood)

Ansel took this photo of a rose in his home in San Francisco when his mother showed him this rose and so Adam wanted to photograph it. When this photo was taken photography hadn't been established as an art form. So the picture is seen as an early example, and was made before Adams developed his idea, of the "visualization" of a picture that allows the photographer include refined details, as you are able to visual how the photo will be before you take the photo. For this photo Ansel used  a 4 x 5 in view camera. At the time Ansel wasn't the expert in exposure that he became and so he bracketed six exposures (he took the photograph six times with each being a slightly different exposure in order to get at least one of them just right). Because the focus was so close, depth of field was very limited and the aperture was set at f/45, needing a five second exposure, but this didn't cause a problem as Ansel was photographing a still life object. The photo was taken in natural lighting which suited the rose petals as they are translucent. Ansel added the driftwood as a background so there was something to contest with the rose petal. The design of the driftwood is quite similar in terms of the shapes to the petals of the rose as the wood curves and layers over itself just like rose petals do. Because of this i feel like the driftwood has made a big impact on this photo and really pushed it because without the wood being there the photo would be completely different. 

Normally you wouldn't see driftwood and a rose together because a rose would still be attached to its stem on a rose bush, so i find this photo really interesting because even though its not completely weird to see these two items together because they're both from nature, it still comes off as different and unusual to a viewer. I think that Ansel chose driftwood for a particular reason because in terms of symbolism the driftwood and rose match each other as they both curl and curve and layer up.

(Oak tree,  sierra foothills, Sunset city California, 1962, part of sierra club)

From researching Ansel, knowing that he uses view cameras and normally uses a 8x10" one, i have assumed that he used that camera for this photo, with a black and white filter over the lens too because the photo doesn't really look completely realistic. This photo is of an alone oak tree, taken during sunset as the sky is very misty and hazy and looks like its quite dark from the sun setting or rising, this adds to the general tone of the photo, which is dark because of the black and white filter and how the whole tree just appears black, almost molding in the smaller tree on the left side of the main one. The sun is also visible towards the right side of the photo setting, the sun hasn't effected the lens by lens flare or really having much affect on the lighting of the photo as the weather seems to appear cold because of how hazy this photo is. As the leaves on the three isn't really visible, it looks like this photo was taken during autumn or winter, as opposed to spring or summer, as the tree would have been more full of leaves and so the sun probably wouldn't have been visible through the leaves. Even though the photo is black and white the sky looks dark grey and on the corners almost look burned and the very bottom section of the photo, where the grass is, too looks as if it could be burned. For me the sun really sticks out to me, because of how the whole general tone of the photo is dark, but in the distance the sun just appears bright and is un-misable seen though its a very small feature within this photo. Even though the sun does stand out because of its brightness against the dark tones, it still isn't eye-catching and doesn't take any of the attention away from the main tree in the photo. To me this photo represents isolation, as in what looks like a field, only this tree at first look is visible, however after looking at the photo closely the tree behind the main one becomes visible. So to me the fact that theres two trees visible but the bigger tree in the front takes most of the attention represents how even though someone might look looney, they've probably still got someone else there with them. As it is quite rare that you would come across a person who is completed isolated, they may think they are but they're not. So to me thats the same as this big tree, because where i live its a bit rare that in a big field to see one large tree completely isolated.

Influence and summery

On my second shoot, i did try to capture a photo of a tree very similar in shape and size to the tree in Oak tree, but there was too many sounding trees in the background for it to come out the exact sen, but it is similar so once i edited it black and white and add some burring to the photo, hopefully i will have a photo that was inspired by Ansel adams style.