Ansel Easton Adams is a renowned photographer in America. He was born in the year 1902 February the 20th in the Western Francisco, California. In the year 1927, he had his very first portfolio produced which was called Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras. In this portfolio, he featured his famous photograph Monolith the Face of Half Dome. This portfolio earned him a good amount, 3900 dollars. In the 1930's, he published books on photography and laid to rest on April the 22nd 1984.Adam is popularly known for the black and white landscape photographs where he featured the American West mainly focusing on the Yosemite National park. These photographs have been reproduced widely on posters, calendars and even in books.
According to Ansel Adam's philosophy, he equates his work of photography to art such that the main objective is not the duplication of visual reality but an investigation of the outer and the inner world where the first experience lies with the camera which involve viewing the world beyond the lens. This is where one can trust that the instrument can capture something seen. The terms ‘shoot' and ‘take' are in no way accidental. They are a representation of their attitude of conquest and appropriation. The term "make" defines an empathy condition that is between the internal and external events, only at the moment when the photographer perceives and createsve impulses. Ansel Adams embraced Alfred Stiggens view in that "when I make a photograph I make love" (Alinder et.al, 1986)
Adam Anstel's landscape photographs had a unique aspect in that they were like no other that had been previously made. The content of his pictures were connected with his appreciation of the landscape as an aspect that is not temporary but something that is evanescent always having the potential of becoming something else. His work was more about sculpture and less about geology as other photographers in his area of expertise expressed. His work on the landscape was less about the solidity of the rock but more on the quality of the object defined by the light and weather. Ansel's technique was one whose design was to solve a problem that was very difficult, where in his photographs one would detect the temperature, the humidity of the day, the time of the day and month. This is the nature of his subject matter where he described the nature of the air.
According to Ansel Adams:
You do not make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the people have loved. Photography is more than a medium of factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art (Adam’s et.al, 2001).
Adam's belief is that the great photographs are total expressions of the object, subject or anything that is photographed, and it is in the deepest sense. A true expression of someone's feelings about life is also entailed in the photograph. Adam's work fits in to the larger historical conversation of the photographic image. He was the last figure who defined the nineteenth century romantic tradition in the American landscape photography and the landscape painting. He claimed that he was in Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, Carlton Watkins and Thomas Cole's tradition. Since his death, Americans have continued to express their love for the work by Adam. How he expressed the natural beauty of the Western America display the history of America from a physical aspect.
The black and white photographs by Adam of the West America took the foremost record on the physical aspects of most of the National Park system before the era of tourism. His advocacy, which was persistent, was a major contribution to the expansion of the National Perk System. Adam utilized his work in the promotion of many goals set up by the Sierra Club and the NEM (Nascent Environmental Movement). Adam often emphasized that as far as his photography was concerned, the beauty took the first priority (Adam’s et.al, 2001).
Most of his images are featured in the calendars, the books and posters. His message as portrayed in some of his photographs laid emphasis on the successive loss of habitat through the soil erosions, the diminishing forests, the depletion of the aquamarine and the game. Adam was a co-founder of the Group f/64 and was also a pioneer of the zone system. The zone system was the technique employed for the translation of the perceived light into various densities that are specific on the photograph negatives and paper. This technique gave the photographers a higher control over the photographs that are already finished. Adam also actualized and supported the visualization idea. This is where the final image is perceived in other terms "seen" in the photographer's mind's eye prior to the shooting of the photograph. This in turn achieves the set goals such as the intellectual, spiritual, mechanical and the aesthetic effects as required (Bull, 2010).The images in the photographs taken by Adam are very powerful in a sense that for the dilettante or the novice, these images can prevent the desire to fathom one's sight behind the monument valley horizons or the Yosemite horizons. The followers of Adam have a monomania that is similar to that of Ayn Rand, a philosopher. Both Rand and Adam have a similar style and an absolutist way and opinion of viewing the reality.
In conclusion, Adam legacy lies in the photography elevation to an art that is similar to music and painting and this photography still has the ability to express emotion and beauty.
References
Adams, A., & Alinder, M. S. (1985). Ansel Adams, an autobiography. Boston: Little, Brown.
Adams, A., Adams, A., Adams, R., Weinberg, A. D., Kemmerer, A. N., Stilgoe, J. R., &
Addison Gallery of American Art. (2001). Reinventing the West: The photographs of
Ansel Adams and Robert Adams.
Andover, Mass: Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy.
Alinder, J., Szarkowski, J., & Adams, A. (1986). Ansel Adams: Classic images. Boston: Little,
Brown
Bull, S. (2010). Photography. London: Routledge.
Weber, E., & Adams, A. (2002). Ansel Adams and the photographers of the American West. San
Diego, Calif: Thunder Bay Press.
