Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams

Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California

Ansel Adams said, “To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or latent in all things. Impression is not enough. Design, style, technique, -- these, too, are not enough. Art must reach further than impression or self-revelation. Art, said Alfred Stieglitz, is the affirmation of life. And life, or its eternal evidence, is everywhere” (Adams, Portfolio 2).

Adams’ photograph titled, Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California is a monument of his expertise. Once familiar with the photographic process, one can be truly mesmerized by the superiority of his photographs. Winter Sunrise, a layered, snowy landscape amidst incredible contrasts of light and dark testifies of his genius. Adams would not consider himself solely as a landscape artist (Adams, Portfolio vii), which he is known for his photography of what he referred to as the “Natural Scene” (Adams, Images 5). In fact, many of his works have explored deeply into a vast number of subjects and ideas, professionally and creatively (Adams, Images 5). John Szarkowski, Director of Photography at the New York Museum of Modern Art, said, “We are primarily thankful to Adams because the best of his pictures stir our memory of what it was like to be alone in an untouched world” (Adams, Portfolio vii). Winter Sunrise is exactly this, a captivating example of the “Natural Scene”.

To look at this photograph, one wonders how he managed the exposure, the lens and shutter, etc. at the moment of the click of his camera. Ansel Adams has said, “A photograph is made, not taken” (Adams, Images 7). In other words, he did not gaze upon the mountain tops and thought, “How pretty, I’m going to take a picture.” To him, photography was far more than the modern “point and click”. Every picture was decisive and thought out. He endeavored to know exactly how each photograph would appear as a negative and how the negative would shape the print.

The Group f/64, which Adams took part in founding, were known for their deliberate attempts for photographing with extremely wide depths of field, which was a recurring theme in Adams' photographs, particularly of the "Natural Scene". Adams even co created the Zone System in the 1930s, a method beginning with the visualization of the photograph before the film exposure. To see the finalized print in the photographer’s mind, having an immediate inkling of how to process the print must be painstakingly trained and harnessed in the photographer’s mind. This pre-visualization may include knowing how long to expose the paper, what contrast, dodging, and so forth.

What did Adams imagine in his mind as he watched the sun rise, leaking light onto the snow covered peaks in Winter Sunrise? How did he know he could get an adequate exposure of the dawn shadows on the valley floor and maintain the true texture of the snow and the mere existence of the clouds? “Composition for Adams… is simply the best way of seeing. He will not tinker with a subject beyond removing extraneous objects, he works by natural light, and he rejects the excessive ‘dodging’ and darkroom tricks that attempt to make bad negatives into good ones. The extent of his manipulation is whatever the negative or the print demands to become what he pre-visualized” (Adams, Images 11). Knowing that Winter Sunrise was photographed at dawn, the sky was likely that dark. If any dodging took place, it must have been quite subtle. “He is not the sort of purist who will never tamper even slightly with negative or print – as though the camera’s wink were the blink of God. He does spot his negatives and prints. But he is no trickster or gadgeteer” (Adams, Images 9).

Winter Sunrise, and others like it regardless of subject or “Natural Scene”, has moved beyond brilliance in history. Adams’ ability to take perfect or near perfect pictures at the moment of film exposure is as monumental as Winter Sunrise. The serene beauty of Winter Sunrise, filled with textured shadows and fluffy clouds reminds us of the simplicity of the untouched world.

Bibliography

Adams, Ansel. Ansel Adams: Images 1923-1974. Boston: New York Graphic Society, Ltd. 1974. Print.

---. The Portfolios of Ansel Adams. New York: Little Brown and Company. 1977. Print.