Ansel Easton Adams

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Ansel Adams

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Autor: anton 27 September 2010

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Ansel Easton Adams, born in 1902 in San Francisco, USA, to Charles and Olive Adams. At the age of twelve, it was obvious that school is not the place for Ansel, the confinement imposed by the classroom and teachers, was a lot more than he could stand, you can say that it was above his threshold. This caused him to deliberately burst in laughter repeatedly in the classroom in an attempt to perhaps undermine the authority that teachers have in the classroom. The repetition of these bursts of laughter and "the undisguised contempt for the inept ramblings of his teachers", as one biographer put it, caused the end of his formal education years. The next best thing in such situations is home-schooling, and this was exactly what was ahead for little Ansel, algebra, English classics and Greek were materials that he was taught at home.

In studying Mr. Adams' education, one might observe no relation what so ever with Photography, this true, but was went on during these years, had a great influence on him, he was taught to appreciate the nature that surrounded him, and it is this appreciation that fueled his passion that was explicitly shown in photography, and above that, Ansel, had the chance to attend Panama-Pacific International Exposition, in celebration of opening of the Panama canal, offered him many sources for information, and this exposition was considered by many to be the learning ground for little Ansel. Also, he studied photography with a photofinisher, where he developed his first pictures. The artistic side of Ansel was nourished during the long years of piano lessons, that Ansel himself, thought to be a good choice for his career, and it remained so for a long time, even after he started photography. This fact could not be overlooked, even if piano can not be related to photography, like painting, but learning piano caused his artistic senses to grow, and this growth means that these senses needed constant nourishment, this nourishment came later in the form of photography.

During a family vacation in Yosemite national park, Ansel parents gave a gift, a Kodak Box Brownie. Ansel finally had a tool to record the fabulous scenes that surrounded him, a process that he would carry on throughout his life. This is considered to be the launch of Ansel the photographer, from the first few pictures, he was hooked. Ansel's work was quickly noticed; in 1920 he was given the position of the Custodian of Yosemite's Leconte Memorial. After getting married in 1929, Ansel was still hanging between the two career choices, piano or photography. A great influence on Ansel's choice was Paul Strand, a brilliant photographer, and by then a new friend of Ansel. The wonderful work of Strand had a decisive effect on Ansel's choice of careers; he was to become a professional photographer. a short wile after, he joined many other brilliant photographers, the likes of Edward Weston, Jon Paul Edwards, Willard Van Dyke and man others to form the "f/64", a group dedicated to photography that looks like photography, not like an imitation of another art form.

This group embodies the concepts of Ansel Adams, and this is what was so distinctive about his work. The realization of photographic vision through technically flawless prints was an approach that Ansel took in photography. But this did not stop experimentation that led him to the use of several large-formats and miniature cameras. to shed some light on the work of Adams, I should point out that he was deeply effected by the nature, especially by the Yosemite valley, and the four hundred mile long mountain range, called Sierra Nevada, where he kept coming back every summer, where he practiced climbing or just took long trips in which a great deal of photography was involved. During these summers, he developed an interest in conservation and was dedicated to record the splendid beauty of these valleys and mountain ranges. So the prominent factor in Ansel's work was his love of nature, and the second factor was photography itself. Meeting Alfred Steiglitz, another brilliant photographer widely renowned at the time, rooted Ansel's believes in what art, and especially photography should be, he once said:" Steiglitz taught me what became my first commandment: "Art is the affirmation of life." Ansel's goal wasn't just to produce beautiful prints, but to be able to report the beauty that he saw with painstaking and crystalline clarity.