Method and Art of Ansel Adams

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Method and Art ofAnsel Adams

• ARHI 198 Directed Reading
• Professor Tad Beckman
• Gautam Thatte, 11/22/2002

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Overview

• How and when was Ansel Adams introduced to
  photography?
• The shift from pictorialism to modernism
• What was Group f/64?
• Technical Legacy of Ansel Adams
• Examining some photographs

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Introduction to Photography

• Was first introduced to it in the 1915 San
  Francisco Panama Pacific Intl Exposition
• Took pictures of Yosemite on his first trip there
  using his Kodak 1 Box Brownie
• Part-time work with a photo-finisher for two
  winters comprised his photographic schooling
• In 1921, some of his photos were published in a
  Yosemite magazine and even sold there

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• Adams gave up the pictorialist approach by 1925,
  and in the spring of 1926, met an ardent patron
  in Albert Bender
• In 1927, Adams published his first portfolio,
  Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras

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Why black and white photography?

• He never processed his color films or made his
  own color prints
• Rarely would an image fit the camera format so
  perfectly that Adams felt no change was
  necessary
• About In Color, colleague Al Weber remarked only
  twelve out of fifty prints, over forty years,
  warranted printing

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Pictorialism to Modernism
Hand of Man (Stieglitz, 1902)
Wheels (Sheeler, 1939)
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Influencing Factors

• Visited the artist colonies in Santa Fe and Taos
  in the late 1920s
• Stieglitz and Steichen introduced modern European
  art as early as 1909

Cubism was an important influence it was being
better understood and mimicked through the
photographic medium. This geometric influence
yielded machinery and city architecture, and
numerous close-ups and severely cropped views.
- Rosenblum
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• Met Paul Strand in Taos. He showed Adams his
  negatives and this caused Adams to finally
  commit to photography as a career
• Also met John Marin and Georgia OKeefe in Taos
  and inherited the idea of using indigenous
  American elements as subjects
• Edward Weston converted to straight photography
  years before Adams did his works were an
  inspiration, but his vegetables seem contrived
  until Adams photographed Rose and Driftwood

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Group f/64

• Forming Group f/64 was the idea of Willard Van
  Dyke and Preston Holder
• Saw that their colleagues better understood the
  modernist principles through their art Ansel in
  the Sierras, Imogen Cunninghams plant and nude
  forms, and their belief that Westons work was
  superior to that of Strand

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• Pure photography did not mean no manipulation
  it was agreed that negatives and prints could be
  manipulated as long as a prescribed list of
  techniques considered to be photographic in
  nature was used. The choice of lens could alter
  spatial relations and relative scale. The tonal
  contrast of the negative could be enhanced or
  diminished during development. Dodging and
  burning during the printing of the image could
  lighten or darken specific areas of the
  photograph. But all of these techniques could be
  used only to a limited degree, so that they did
  not interfere with the essence of the reality of
  the scene before the photographer.

The Group f/64 Manifesto
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(No Transcript)
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Did Adams photograph only landscapes?

• Rose and Driftwood and other portraits
• Commercial assignments for Polaroid and United
  States Potash

• Documentary photography
• including the Manzanar
• relocation camps, and
• Three Mormon Towns

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Technical Legacy of Adams

• Explained visualization, the zone system (with
  Fred Archer) and printing
• Attempted to make his photographs and his
  teaching available
• Books included Making a Photograph, the Basic
  Photo Series and Examples The Making of 40
  Photographs

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Visualization

• The conscious process of projecting the final
  photographic image in the mind before taking the
  first steps in actually photographing the subject
• Adams recognized that visualization is not arcane
  and is intuitive for many people, and wrote the
  Basic Photo Series to refine the process for
  those who were familiar with it, and to assist
  those individuals who strive to create
  aesthetically pleasing photographs
• Requires technical knowledge of all the resources
  available when taking the photograph lenses,
  filters, light meters etc

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The Zone System

• The Zone System divides the range of tones
  produced by a printing paper into ten zones
  ranging from Zone 0 (pure black) to Zone IX (pure
  white), with Zone V representing middle gray
• Assists in deciding which elements of a
  photograph should consist of detail
• Representation of a wider range of zones is
  high-contrast

http//www.sentex.net/sfinlay/technique1.htm
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Aspens Northern New Mexico, 1958
An excellent example of representing every zone
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Printing Process

• Had an excellent mastery over the technical
  aspects of photography
• He experimented with various papers, and
  development techniques from the very beginning
• Believed that photographs should be reproducible
  and at the same quality

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Photographs of Ansel Adams
Moonrise represents the product of a series of
conscious interpretive decisions by the
photographer, not simply the record of a
beautiful scene. At each stage of the process,
Adams applied his technical mastery of the medium
to create an image that would convey the emotions
he felt. Jonathan Spaulding
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Monolith, The Face of Half Dome

• Image was Adams first conscious visualization
• Knew after the first exposure that the effect he
  wanted would be achieved by using a red filter

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Moonrise, Hernandez

• Most popular image
• Could not find his Weston exposure meter!
• Resulted in only one negative
• Did not accurately date this photograph

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Mount Williamson, Manzanar

• Site of the Manzanar Relocation Camp
• Was a very high-contrast image and printing was
  rather difficult at first
• Is this a real photo?

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References

• Alinder, Mary Street. Ansel Adams, A Biography
• Spaulding, Jonathan. Ansel Adams and the American
  Landscape
• Seeing Straight f.64. Essays by Naomi Rosenblum
  and Therese Thau Heyman