Ansel Adams | courtneysphotos

Yosemite Valley, 1935

This image shows great detail reaching to the landscape far beyond the first set of mountains. There is high contrast with the shadows that are apparent in the foreground from the clouds. It is symmetrical, with strong blacks and bright whites from the clouds and peices of the mountains. There are implied horizontal lines throughout the image, from the clouds, the mountains, and the treelines. The dark shadow mirrors the clouds in the opposing corner, which is appealing to the viewer. The viewers attention is brought to the waterfall, but subtly, as it's framed by the mountain and the shadow. There are also strong vertical lines that bring a frame-within-a-frame affect to the image.

Ansel Adams-Most Influential to my Work

Born February 20, 1902 in San Francisco Adams was born into a family that had its success in the lumber business. As a child he was sickly, but hyperactive. He had few friends, and was educated in private after he turned 12 due to his inability to stay attentive in many private schools. He was pulled completely from school by age 15, but returned to formal education soon afterwards. Adams and his father remained close throughout his life, however his mother did not approve of his photographic interests so their relationship was strained. Adams had interests in music as well. He taught himself piano at age 12 and retained this interest throughout his life. Adams also engaged in many outdoor activities such as hiking and camping. In 1928 he married Virginia Best, daughter of the Best's Studio propretor. The couple had their first child, Michael, in 1933 and their second, Anne, was born two years later. She inherited the studio after he died in 1935 and, together with Ansel, ran the studio until 1971. Adams died on April 22, 1984.

At only 14 Adams began experimenting with photography after he took a trip to Yosemite National Park. His father gave him his first camera which was a Kodak Brownie box camera, through which Adams captured many landscape views at Yosemite. In 1921 his first photographs got published, and a year later Best's Studio started selling his Yosemite prints. Adams experimented with different lenses and photographic techniques in order to try his hand at pictorialism. However, he soon rejected this and focused on high contrast photos and darkroom craftsmanship. Adams became successful with his first portfolio in 1927 and made around $3,900. Between 1929 and 1942 he became quite established, working with everything from close-ups to landscapes of various types. Adams put his first solo museum exhibition up in 1931 at the Smithsonian Institution, which recieved excellent reviews. In 1932 he became a part of Group f/64, which strove to follow pure photography, rather than pictorialism. Adams opened his own gallery in 1933 in San Francisco, then he began writing essays in photography magazines in order to create awareness for wilderness preservation. Adams worked for many famous names including Kodak and AT&T, as well as doing his own person works. Adams began taking on pupils in 1941 and gave several workshops. He took his famous "Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico" shot the same year and the value of the prints he made in the 70s now exceeds $25,000,000. He taught until 1981. while also still publishing and writing for many magazines.

His work has influenced me because I believe that his contrast and values in his photos are astounding and I would love to be able to imitate that. I also realized while watching the video on his works that I could play with the images, instead of just using pure images like I had previously thought. I also appreciate the fact that he often captured objects just as they were, rather than trying to arrange them. This is a method I can relate to and I would love to be able to create strong images as seen in his own works.

http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/ansel-adams-269.php

http://www.biography.com/people/ansel-adams-9175697#early-life