Kate+Connor

= Ansel Adams =

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Ansel Adams was an amazing photographer and a conservationist.He was born February 20th, 1902 in San Francisco, California. It was a family trip to [|Yosemite National Park] that first sparked his interest in photography and the western landscape, he didn't know it then, but one day he would spend decades photographing that landscape and those like it.It was not quite that simple however. Adams' first acknowledged photograph he didn't take until he was twenty-five. In his early twenties he went through a phase where he wanted to be a pianist and in fact bought a grand piano. It wasn't until he was in his thirties that he began to become very active in the photography community. In 1932 he founded the [|f/64] group with the help of [|Edward Weston]; together they developed zone exposure, which allows for the widest range in tones on black and white film.Then in 1934 he began serving on the Sierra Club Board, which he continued to do until 1971. In 1940 Adams taught his very first workshop, the U.S. Camera Photographic Forum, in Yosemite with Edward Weston. Four years later he won three Guggenheim grants to photograph the national parks. Then nine years later, in 1953, Ansel Adams and Dorothea Lange were commissioned by Life magazine to do a photo essay of the Mormons in Utah. ======

After all of those busy years, Adams moved to Carmel, California in 1962. Five years later he help to found [|Friends of Photography].

It wasn't until 1984, at the age of eighty-two that Adams finally died of heart failure, which is supposed to have been agrivated if not caused by the cancer he had.

Ansel Adams was born, lived, worked, photographed, and died in the Southwest United States. He left behind him a legacy, not just of photographs but also foundations and the work he did on the [|Sierra Club Board].

= "Surf Sequence 1" =



“Surf Sequence 1” is, as the title suggests, the first in a series of photographs taken by Ansel Adams in 1940 of waves on the beach. Being a photograph, the work is obviously objective, however, because of the angle it is taken from, it does have some abstract qualities. Most photographs you see of waves are taken from a distance when the wave is cresting, or taken from the point of view standing looking out over the beach. Adams’s photo is different. It is taken as though you are looking directly down at the ocean washing onto the shore; because of that, and because it is taken in black and white, it doesn’t necessarily register at first glance that the photo you are looking at is if the ocean, which gives it an abstract feel to an otherwise objective piece.

How did Adams go about coming up with the idea for and taking this photograph? Well, it is said that, “one morning Adams was driving along the coast and frequently stopped the car to look out from the cliffs at the lively surf below. ‘At one location I noted that below me was a nice curve of rockfall fronting the beach. The surf was streaming over the beach, barely touching the rocks and creating one beautiful pattern after another. I realized that I could perhaps make a series of images that might become a sequence...’ He set up his camera and waited for an ‘appealing arrangement of flowing water and foam.’”(Adams, 1983). That is the “how the photo was taken” straight from the artist’s mouth. On a more technical level, the photograph was taken with a 4X5 view camera with a 250mm Dagor long focus lens.  There is fantastic contrast in both texture and value in this piece. The texture of the water is of course very smooth and lucid, where as the sand is very rough and jagged, something that is made even more obvious by the lighting. It is interesting though, because in between the smooth water and rough sand there is this transitional space which is the wet sand that has been smoothed out by the receding wave. So the image transitions from the very soft texture of the water, to the transitional wet sand that is so flat and smooth it appears to have almost no texture, to the extremely rough texture of the sand. There is also contrast in values. The photograph is taken in black and white, so the contrast is even more obvious. The water at the top of the frame is the lightest value, even white in some places. The the middle section is the 2nd darkest, because it is the wet sand, and it creates almost a stripe through the middle of the photograph. Then the sand at the bottom of the frame is divided into two sections, the part toughing the wet sand is light, not as light as the water, but still a lighter value; the rest of the sand in the very bottom of the frame is in shadow, making it almost black and therefore the darkest value in the photograph. This contrast from light to dark to light to dark values makes for a very interesting, stripe-like composition. Even though there is variety in texture and value, there is still harmony in the piece that is created in a few ways. The fact that the photograph is entirely in black and white instantly brings harmony to the piece because everything is grayscale. But the fact that even though the textures are very different, they are all very natural, not at all geometric, brings harmony to the piece and ties it all together. This photograph has a very interesting balance to it as well. It is divided, not quite perfectly, into thirds, the top third being water, the middle third being wet sand, and the bottom third being dry sand, both in light and shadow. These horizontal stripes are what also create movement through the piece. You eye first jumps to the triangle that is created by the parting waves in the top center of the image because it is the one shape that breaks away from the flowing horizontal lines. But then your eye proceeds to trace along those lines, scanning from left to right across the photo.  This is one of four photographs in a series, which I think all work together to make a statement about nature. I believe the harmony and the balance that is portrayed in not only this photograph, but the other three as well, is meant to reflect the harmony and balance that is in all of nature. Also, when viewed as a series, you see the pattern that is also part of nature, as the waves come in, ease out, and then come in once again. Unlike other photographers of his time, like Richard Misrach who, like Adams, focused his photography on the West, but portrayed it in a very different manner, Adams focused his photography on the natural landscape of the Southwest (Giblett, 2009). He loved nature and by using black and white captured it in its purest and simplest form. As you can see in “Surf Sequence”, Adams focuses on the shape, form, and natural contrast and balance in nature. The meaning of this photograph (as it is most of Adams’s work) is to show the beauty and art of nature in the simplest form.  Ansel Adams made a lot of contributions not just to the art community, but to the entire world. Adams gave to the world a collection of photos of Yosemite National Park, he was hired to do so, and not surprisingly, he captured the park through his lens in a way only he could. As an artist, he has a very distinct style, one that is very recognizable and nearly impossible to imitate. His work can be picked out in an instant. He was not the first person to take a black and white photograph. He was not the first person to take a picture of the landscape of the southwest. He was however the first person to take a black and white photograph of the southwest in an incredibly distinct and artistic way. The natural contrast, beautiful composition, and breath taking simplicity of his photographs cannot be rivaled.

To see one of the few videos of, and receive tips on visualization from Ansel Adams himself go to []

My Interpretation of an Ansel Adams photo

Sources: [|www.teddillard.com] [|www.zpub.com] [|www.springfieldmuseums.org] [|www.michenermuseum.org] [|www.afterimagegallery.com] [] [|www.artknowledgenews.com]

//Examples, The Making of 40 Photographs// by Ansel Adams (Boston, Toronto, London: Little, Brown and Co, 1983).

Giblett, Rod. "Wilderness to Wasteland in the Photography of the American West." //Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies//, 23.1 (2009): 43-52.

Hammond, Anne. "Ansel Adams and George Waters: Photographer and Printer." //History of Photography//, 32.1 (2008): 51-58.