Great photographers threw out a challenge to our habitual outlook and broadened horizons of the visible world. They taught us to take the world in a different way, understand it better and appreciate it more. We can learn a lot from these masters; they inspire us to achieve much success when taking our own pictures. These people deserve to be praised every minute but actually we know nothing of them. Sometimes we don’t even know their names… This time I would like to talk about people who have distinguished themselves by their talent of taking photos. This article is supposed to open a whole set of stories under the general title "The Galery of Photographers”. Naturally, I can’t tell you about all of them but some names are really worth mentioning: Ansel Adams, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Nobuyoshi Araki, Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, Felice Beato, Karl Blossfeldt, Guy Burdin, Man Ray, Raghu Rai, Frans Lanting, Ernst Haas, Elliot Erwitt, Alfred Eisenstaedt, Max Dupain, Stephen Dalton, Henry Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and many, many others… This blog will be dedicated only to one photographer, that is Ansel Easton Adams. His works strike our imagination with their unreal reality, colourful greyness and vivid stillness.
Ansel Easton Adams (1902 – 1984) was an American photographer and environmentalist, best known for his black-and-white photographs of the American West and primarily Yosemite National Park. Due to the impact produced by his pictures which glorify and magnify the beauty of American nature, Adams’ works were involved into political spheres having played an important role in the cause of wilderness preservation. He stated, "We all know the tragedy of the dustbowls, the cruel unforgivable erosions of the soil, the depletion of fish or game, and the shrinking of the noble forests. And we know that such catastrophes shrivel the spirit of the people… The wilderness is pushed back, man is everywhere. Solitude, so vital to the individual man, is almost nowhere.” He published his well-known book "Making a Photograph” in 1935: for his images he developed the zone system, a way to determine proper exposure and adjust the contrast of the final print. And that is what makes his pictures unforgettable. Clarity and depth of his images result in so called 3D-effect. At the same time the photos look like finely worked pencil sketches where the author intensively picked in the shadows.
I think some of you will be much interested in the way Adams embodied his conception of environmental protection. Adams kept saying: "You don’t take a picture, you create it.”
But he didn’t create just photographs, he was eager to create certain ideas in people’s minds, he wanted them to value what they had, he strove to make them worried about what they’re losing. And we can’t but admit that his great intentions were greatly presented with the help of Her Majesty Photography.
Wow, these photos are just unique! Every photo has its own atmosphere. Unfortunately, I haven't heard about Ansel Adams before, but now I can say that he is a very talented photographer. I'd like to know more about him and his works after reading this article! Thank you a lot
I like the topic. And I adore these photos. You know, I have a desire to be there, to live there. It's really amazing. My heart is trembling while I'm looking at these pictures.
It is wonderful what art can do to us. It takes us "into this wild abyss, the womb of nature and perhaps her grave" as John Milton wrote in his Paradise Lost. Maybe, the only thing which can reign over a free person is beauty itself.
"Colourful grayness", "Clarity and depth", "3D-effect"... I can see it!!! Wonderful!!! Really, the first photo hypnotizes me. I can't stop looking at it... at these white trunks... at this deep blackness.And, I don't know how to explain it... May be, it's just an optical illusion, but still... When I'm loking at the bushes, I understand, that they are GREEN. No. Not "understand". I SEE that they ARE GREEN. How can it be I wonder?
I'm greatly pleased to know that you find my blog of some interest. It really inspires me to go on seeking for the topics that might be useful and readable for you. And I also agree with the Teacher on the fact that art has no value and actually does not exist beyond the human mind and heart. Photography, since it is also a form of art, is not just pictures, or a photographer's talent, or a set of techniques applied to produce a good snapshot. You may have a different opinion, but I do believe that the art of photography is what we feel and experience when looking at a certain picture. By the way, that is the major feature that makes all forms of art have something in common.
Great article! Very convincing and encouraging! The text helps one understand that photography can be great art - powerful, penetrating, emotionally evoking, heart-gripping, and eternally independent. I think I will include your article in our next lesson plan because I want the other students to respond to the message. Art doesn't happen in the picture, on the screen or on the stage. It happens in the human mind, when images or sounds find a way to one's mind, one's inner world and trigger off an aesthetic reaction, an emotional repsonse. Thus it becomes internalized, for ever.
