Part One: Ansel Adams. | BREAKDOWN |
“When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When Images become inadequate, I shall be content in silence”
- All images shown are for educational and insightful purposes only*
Heres the time to start introducing a new section to my blog, | BREAKDOWN| . BREAKDOWN is, as it says, a breakdown of legend photographers artworks through composition, toning, feelings and notes. They are notes that I find I need to know, i’m writing for myself however if anyone has pinters then please comment. BREAKDOWN will come across as how I have wrote it in my field note journal that I take almost everywhere with me.
I have a few notable and some of my favourite photographers lined up for the next few weeks to keep me occupied such as Alec Soth, Sally Man and Eugene Smith (which wil only be like 0.01% of his 5 million photos). If it works, i’ll add and BREAKDOWN a number of more modern modern photographers and include certain sections such as early modern colour photographers or notable right-now photojournalists or artists. The world is an oyster and the internet is a sea but for now,
ANSEL ADAMS
Ansel’s images depicts to me tonal ranges and how atmospheric vapours such as waterfall mist or clouds, can stand out from a photograph. Theres always a focal point to the images. In ‘Clearing Winter Storm’ stands a monolith with a jagged edged waterfall that is smooth compared to the rest of the image which depicts a sharp complicated texture of pine forests. He also adds layers to these images by placing the darker layer but looming cliffside contrasting the monolith. Edges poke between these two objects identifying to us the background mountain range.
The feeling of this image produces a sense or a wash of fog, maybe a change in the air of this simple monolith. The monolith is always outshone by its bigger counterpart but in this photo, it finally has the air to stand out.
Adams always used a large format camera for its unstoppable resolution. They were notoriously hard to set up. Personally I would never be find it extraordinaryly difficult to try and shoot on one of these due to the complexities of light settings. It’s an art and a skill to which I will never have the patience to achieve.
I feel that Adams is celebrated obviously because of his tried and tested patience and how it is captured. His editing is quite simple. He only masks out some brighter and darker parts in the darkroom and thats really it. Completely different towards the handpainting that was so popular at the time. His ‘editing’ is done before the image is captured. Adams created ‘The Zone System’ along with Fred Archer, a lecturer whom he worked with, which provided an easier way upon visualising the final results of the image.
I think if theres any parts I should take away from Adams images is that:
- Be Patient
- Stay focused on the light
- Black & White can still be interesting
- Know your shit (Techniques, Gear aka learn your damn craft!)
- Think about the Photo end result
