Photography

Ansel Adams’ photographs capture the stunning beauty and awesome power of nature in a way almost nothing else can. They demonstrate the delicateness and fragility of nature and prompt viewers to consider the potential impact of global warming, damage to the ozone layer, pollution, and other environmental calamities. His photographs have greatly heightened environmental awareness and concern. "Bristlecone Pine Wood," for example, has sharp light and dark contrasts that many have interpreted as representative of life and mortality. It also suggests that neglecting nature can have devastating consequences. Many of his other photographs utilize these stark contrasts. "Redwood Forest, Founder’s Grove" demonstrates Adams’ mastery of light in his photographs (Wortz). According to Melinda Wortz, "Although the darker forms in the foreground seem to dominate at first, it soon becomes apparent that their massive forms are literally enlightened by the light filtering though the woods and into dappled pools in the foreground."

Adams deeply believed that a work of art should convey the artist’s feelings about the subject. For this reason, he distinguished his commercial projects from his purely creative ventures. He welcomed the commercial projects, however, because he felt they gave him opportunities to improve his art. This distinction between works "from within" (artistic endeavors) and works "from without" (commercial endeavors) blurred with his assignment to photograph the national parks, monuments, Indian lands, and reclamation projects administered by the Department of the Interior, which he received in 1941 from Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. Ansel Adams felt the Mural Project to be an ideal project, because he could convey his strongest convictions through the photographs. In his photographs, he sought to impress the spiritually redemptive power of the untouched landscape upon viewers. Adams cited in his letters the "intangible qualities" of nature as that which must be safeguarded for the future. Through the Mural Project, Adams promoted the ecological benefits of environmentalism and the more practical need for it (Gray 7-8).

Ansel Adams also developed the Zone System, an important technological advance in photography. In this system, light is divided into eleven zones, ranging from zero, which is pure black, to ten, which is white. The photographer designates zones for the gradations of light and dark in an image and develops the film according to the desired intensity of tone. This technique quickly became a mainstay of photography and made possible visualization, the fundamental principle of Adams’ "expressive photography." The photographer, using the system, would be allowed control of the light and shadow in a photographic image (Gray 9).

Detail in photographs was very important to Adams. The organization he founded, Group f.64, emphasized this and also that photography should not try to emulate painting or other art forms. Photography should be evaluated solely in terms of its own medium, according to the group. In his career, Adams succeeded in producing magnificent photographic prints that have been respected and acclaimed. Perhaps more importantly, they illustrate the pristine beauty of nature and emphasize its fragility (Gray 11). Adams’ work shows that, without working to preserve nature, we risk losing one of the most perfect and beautiful elements in the world.

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