Famous+Photographer


 * Historical Background**

Ansel Adams was an American Photographer born on February 20th, 1902, in the Western Addition of San Francisco, California, and died on April 22nd, 1984. He was an only child of his upper class parents, and was named after his uncle, Ansel Easton. His grandfather on his mother's side ran a successful freight-hauling business, whereas his grandfather on his father's side began a lumber business. Though Ansel Adams' father was more interested in sciences, he still inherited the lumber business, which cut down many of the great redwood forests. An unexpected earthquake in San Francisco on April 18, 1906 caused Ansel Adams to break his nose, which was never re-set and remained crooked for his entire life. Ansel Adams was a hyperactive child who became sick easily. However, he developed an interest in nature at an early age; he often collected bugs, and explored the nearby creeks, beaches, and sea cliffs. Around 1912, the family business had suffered great financial losses, and their living standard dropped significantly. Ansel became home-schooled in 1915, educated by his Aunt Mary, and his father. Since Aunt Mary was a follower of a 19th century agnostic, abolitionist, and women's suffrage advocate, Ansel Adams had been in contact with social issues at an early age. At last, Ansel Adams completed his education by graduating from Mrs. Kate M. Wilkins Private School. Ansel Adams had developed a loving, supportive relationship with his father, who raise him with the ideas of Ralph Waldo Emerson-"to love a modest, moral life guided by a social responsibility to man and to nature". This, however, distant his relationship with his mother, who disapproved his interest in photography. At the age of twelve, Ansel taught himself to play piano, and took this interest further by taking music lessons. Music became his main focus in his teenage years, and piano was the career he intended to pursue. Though he later became a photographer, the careful training of music influenced his visual artistry on photography. Ansel Adams was famous for his black and white photography, especially those from the Yosemite National Park, where he first visited in 1916 with his family. He also received his first camera, a Kodak Brownie box camera, from his father on their family trip to the National Park. Later, he revisited Yosemite with better camera and a tripod, and in that winter, began learning the darkroom techniques while working part-time for a San Francisco photo finisher. Thus, this started Ansel Adams' career in photography. He continually read photography magazines, attend camera club meetings, and went to photography and art exhibits.


 * Influences**

Ansel Adams' father and aunt influenced him the most. As we know already, Aunt Mary started tutoring Ansel Adams when he was twelve or thirteen. Her believes in social changes had given Ansel Adams a different view on the society. This allowed him to understand social issues at an early age. Thus, Ansel was brought up following the ideas of a agnostic, abolitionist, and women's suffrage advocate. Another source that greatly influenced Ansel was his father, as they had developed a close relationship. It was his father who introduced the photography world to Ansel; his father also shared his hobby of amateur astronomy with Ansel when he was young. As the teacher of Ansel when he was home-schooled, his father had given Ansel all the knowledge he had. His father even insisted that Ansel should study one exhibit of the Panama Pacific International Exhibition each day in 1915.


 * Style and Major Genre**

The style and genre of Ansel Adams' photography was mainly of landscape. However, he was also an environmentalist and used his photography to promote conservation. He was known for his black and white photography of the American West, especially in the Yosemite National Park.


 * Ansel Adams' Work**

Some design principles that are present in this picture are texture, and contrast. Ansel Adams skillfully captured the fine details of the leaves, and pine needles, creating a sense of texture. The contrast between the leaves and its background of pine needles emphasize the existence of the light-coloured leaves; this technique especially draws our attention to the leave placed close to the centre. As a black and white picture, and composed of elements in the environment, this picture is a perfect representation of Ansel Adams' photography. This photography was taken in the Glacier National Park, a site where Ansel usually create these environmental pictures. In this picture, light from above is shone onto the leaves and the pine needles. We can tell by how the pine needles in the innermost layer are darker compared to the ones in front of them. The most well lit element is the leave that is placed a bit off-centered. Its space dominates one quarter of the image, allowing light to emphasize its existence.

Direction and depth are design principles used to create this image.The bent branches, along with the tree's angled position, give the image a sense of direction and motion. The tree and its branches are also placed diagonally across the image, thus, there is also the use of diagonals. There is also the use of depth, as there are different layers, from the boulders, to the tree, to the mountains in the background, and finally the ashen sky. This is another shot of mother nature, a suitable image that represents a environmentalist photographer. We can tell by the shadow that the source of light is the sun and it comes from the upper left area. The light creates different fades of shadows, which gives the image another feeling. The shadows also blends the boulders into the mountains, giving it uniqueness.

In this image, there are the use of dynamic "S" curve and depth as design principles. The river clearly illustrates the shape of "S", and this leads our eyes into and out of the picture; this also gives the river a sense of motion. There are also different depths in the picture: the layers of forest, river, mountains, and sky. As another picture of the nature, this is also a good representation of Ansel's work. Once again, he uses the technique of black-and-white photography to create this impactful image taken in the Grand Teton National Park. The light source, which is the sun again, is hidden behind the clouds. However, we can still see rays of sunlight piercing through the clouds. These rays lit the river, and gives it contrast with its surrounding.

There are many design principles present in this photo: simplicity, balance, colour contrast, and rule of thirds. There are only the subject and the background in this image, and this is clearly using the technique of simplicity to emphasize the subject. The shadow created by the petals gives the image a sense of balance, especially because it is in black and white. Thus, this also gives the image colour contrast. Ansel Adams also used the rule of thirds to compose this image; the rose dominates two-thirds of the space. The subject of this image is from the nature again, thus, it is also a good representation of Ansel Adams' photography. Light is shone from above and in front of the rose. This is what creates the shadow, giving the rose different sense of feeling.

One of the most obvious design principles in this image is balance since the subject, which is the cactus, is placed in the centre of the image. However, there is also the use of rule of thirds for the background; the sky dominates two-thirds of the area. This picture shows another area of our beautiful world. Since it is once again a picture of the nature in black and white, thus, it is a good representation of Ansel's work. Light is shone onto the cactus from the front. However, there is also light coming from the sun above that lights up the middle area of the sky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ansel_Adams

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