Method and Art ofAnsel Adams

ARHI 198 Directed ReadingProfessor Tad Beckman

Gautam Thatte, 11/22/2002

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

Introduction to Photography Was first introduced to it in the 1915 San

Francisco Panama Pacific Int’l 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

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

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

Pictorialism to Modernism

Hand of Man (Stieglitz, 1902)

Wheels (Sheeler, 1939)

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 1909Cubism 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

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 O’Keefe 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

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 Cunningham’s plant and nude forms, and their belief that Weston’s work was superior to that of Strand

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

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

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

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

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

An excellent example of representing every zone

AspensNorthern New Mexico, 1958

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

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

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

Moonrise, Hernandez

Most popular image

Could not find his Weston exposure meter!

Resulted in only one negative

Did not accurately date this photograph

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?

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