For the last few months, I spent some of my free time exploring Ansel Adams– reading books, browsing the web and watching documentaries on this amazing man. I figure I’d write something about my take on Ansel Adams.
In the pixel-rich age of today, it’s all too easy to forget that photography is a relatively new art form. In the early parts of 20th century, many in the art world simply did not accept it as a form of fine art: photography was thought to be too mechanical and that there’s little in interpretation one normally finds in art. Adams himself had doubts in the early years as he spent years hedging between photography and music. But it was inevitably that Adams embraced photography, and once he did, he became instrumental in establishing it as a respectable art form.
Adams had an eureka moment one morning in the early years as a photographer. Adams wrote of the pivotal moment of his career:
“The silver light turned every blade of grass and every particle of sand into a luminous metallic splendor; there was nothing, however small, that did not clash in the bright wind, that did not send arrows of light through the glassy air. I was suddenly arrested in the long crunching path up the ridge by an exceedingly pointed awareness of the light.
The moment I paused, the full impact of the mood was upon me; I saw more clearly than I have ever seen before or since the minute detail of the grasses …the small flotsam of the forest, the motion of the high clouds streaming above the peaks…
I dreamed that for a moment time stood quietly, and the vision became but the shadow of an infinitely greater world — and I had within the grasp of consciousness a transcendental experience.”
In devoting the rest of his life trying to recapture that singular transcendental experience, Ansel Adams developed into a visionary photographer. He had the keen ability of visualizing an image and had the ability of capturing that visualization with his camera. He once said:
“the photographer’s objective is not the duplication of visual reality… Photography is an investigation of both the outer and the inner worlds. The terms shoot and take are not accidental; they represent an attitude of conquest and appropriation. Only when the photographer grows into perception and creative impulse does the term make define a condition of empathy between the external and the internal events.”
One of the many things I admire about Adams’ photography is his capture of dramatic light and intricate shadows. There are so many layers to an Ansel Adams print. There’s the ever-present sense of awe, but usually at the same time a sense of stillness, peace and quietness, all adding to the photograph in a dramatic but harmonious way. They are unique that way!
Adam’s autobiography unfortunately was short of a total honest retrospective. He intentionally left out the darker but important parts of his life. For example, he suffered a total melt-down that lasted 1.5 years. Even at the peak of his game, he suffered self-doubts of his abilities as an artist. He also didn’t even mention his intense love affair with Patsy English, his dark room assistant. She was the great love of his life, but in the end Adams decided against leaving his wife Virginia. Without other sources, I’d have missed out on darker sides of an imperfect and complex man.
Contrary to popular belief, Adams didn’t capture mainstream fame until the late years of his life. Impossibly it seemed but the fact is that his photography didn’t really achieved financial stability for the artist until the late 70’s, only a few years before his death! He was still doing commercial gigs for the money until when he was in his 70’s. It is a rather sad fact. I believe his belated success was due to environmental movement becoming mainstream in the 70’s. Adams was an environmentalist long before the term was even coined. Many times his work was used in campaigning for establishing national parks and reserves. So it’s appropriate that the environmental movement called into attention Adams’ landscape photography. By the time of his death in ’84, his photos had became iconic! The name of Ansel Adams became closely associated with western American landscape. For me, like most people, Yosemite and Ansel Adams are synonymous.
When I look at a Yosemite scenery or a photograph, I think of Ansel Adams.
My youngest daughter Allison has a favorite pillow. It’s actually a throw pillow, but it’s made of this super soft material. She doesn’t actually sleep on it, but uses it as a body pillow. She places it on her right side of the bed every night. She really loves the pillow– so much that she’s become very protective of it. Here’s a telling episode…
