Though Ansel Adams may have died in 1984, his work and his impact on photography reverberates through the craft to this day. This video essay will explain how and why, in under ten minutes.
These days, it feels as if there are few photographers that non-photographers know of. Even 15-20 years ago, I can still hear by Grandma saying "oh, check out David Bailey over here" when she first saw me with a camera. Perhaps it's because photographers were less common and the craft was harder to get into, with photographers being far rarer than today. Whatever the case, there were a handful of photographers that for all intents and purposes, everybody knew. Ansel Adams was one of them.
Anyone who has had any sort of interest in photography, particularly in more recent years, will likely know that Adams was brilliant, but not necessarily why. You might see his black and white landscapes and think they're certainly nice, but not quite grasp why they're as revered as they are. The truth it, he pioneered a great deal of what is now a staple of the craft, particularly in areas such as composition. While he may not have invented compositional elements like leading lines or foreground interest, he certainly popularized them.
So, take ten minutes to enjoy a well organized video essay on one of photography's greatest.
I had the great pleasure of knowing Ansel during the later years of his life. I got to spend time in his darkroom and he'd did the same in mine. I found out that Ansel had three of my prints in his personal collection that is now curated at the Center for Creative Photography. I learned a couple of critical things from Ansel. First is that photographs are made in the mind of the photographer and the camera and print is just a way of getting the image out of the imagination and showing it to someone else. Ansel called this previsualization. I also learned that Ansel's vision carried over to printmaking. I think Ansel was the best printmaker of all time. Ansel replaced the lamp house and condenser on his enlarger with a matrix of small bulbs each connected to its own rheostat. He never burned or dodged. He would control the amount of light reaching any particular part of the negative. I miss him every day and think about the time we spent together, not only on photography but on ecologic projects. Ansel was one of the founding directors of the Sierra Club.
"He never burned or dodged." — Of course he did. I just watched video of him doing both. See "Exclusive Look Into Ansel Adams' Home and Darkroom" by Advancing Your Photography on YouTube.
I have seen that. However, that is not how he typically did it. That is an instructional video for the photographers who didn't have his set up. The reason he used his custom designed lighthouse on the enlarger is that he meticulously recorded each of the rheostat settings so his assistant could make constant prints from his negatives. You could not do that with individually burning and dodging. Ansel made great use of his assistant, Liliane De Cock Morgan. She died not too long ago. https://bangordailynews.com/2013/05/30/news/remembering-photographer-lil...
Towards the end of Ansel's life he had sever arthritis in his hands which made many routing tasks from setting up his camera to working in the darkroom very difficult if not impossible. Lillian was an extension of Ansel's creative mind.
..."He would control the amount of light reaching any particular part of the negative."
Isn't that basically dodging and burning?
He got dodging and burning backwards.
He mentioned a George Weston. I think he meant Edward Weston.
Yup.
are you sure, that it was a good idea, to show his pictures in a frame of a Kodak Portra 400 35mm frame??
He summed up my (Ansel Adams) philosophy towards taking photos.
Ha, I just read the article what next cameras need to have for software and so on. And I had Ansel in mind while reading that. He wouldn't have need it for sure.
I know a photographer named René Groebli who is well past his nineties today. Member of well known exhibition The Family of men. For what I know, he used to be an absolute expert of the darkroom, using and developing techniques we today use in Photoshop. Absolutely stunning for the technical side, he is known all over the world for this mastery. He’s still exhibiting today, concentrating on his b/w artwork.
He was well ahead of his time - but that was in the past. There are many amazing photographers today everywhere but now it's just a matter of sorting through the monstrous number of images everywhere. He now only makes for great history - and I say this as a HUGE Ansel Adams fan and still adore his amazing photos.
This video would be interesting were it not for the glaring inaccuracies.
When first mentioning medium and large format photography the video outlines a 4x5in flatbed camera as medium format!!
The terms dodging and burning are outlined incorrectly. Dodging holds back light on the print thereby lightening that area while burning allows more light to an area!
Also, though corrected, it was EDWARD Weston, not George.
Maybe the narrator should check his facts before releasing videos in future!
It's good that new students get acquainted with Ansel. He is the gold standard and so much is out there about him and his work. There is another photographer of the Sierras. Steven H. Willard that has similar work. What is never really
discussed is how the equipment and sensibilities of the time contributed to the compositions. Ansel, Willard, and others all have that same style of classic lines and often standard lenses yet show the magnitude of the scene.
These compositions are in a way dated yet timeless.
a lot of half truths a lot of nonsense ......