Why Ansel Adams changed photography

In this video we're going to have a look at how one photographer had so much impact in the history of his craft, of course we're going to be talking about Ansel Adams and his photography, whilst taking lessons to incorporate in our own work and personal lives. Thank you to Milanote for sponsoring this video and thank you so much for watching & supporting the channel!

Links to my work

More on Ansel Adams
Ric Burns' PBS documentary on Ansel Adams
Episode of Tony & Chelsea Northrup's podcast on Ansel Adams

Books on or by Ansel Adams
Ansel Adams' 400 Photographs
Ansel Adams' Yosemite: The Special Edition Prints
Ansel Adams' The Camera, The Negative & The Print

Footage
Yosemite in the 1930s.
Ansel Adams, Photographer (1958)
How Edward Weston Captured His Iconic Images.

Music
Betrayal by Bobby Horton
Covered and beautifully performed by Gregory Garstka

Video Breakdown
00:00 - Intro
02:52 - The Rise of Ansel Adams, part one.
05:07 - Confidence in the Creative Spirit, part two.
11:13 - Milanote Sponsored Segment.
12:30 - A Magnificent piece of old wood, part three.
14:31 - Conclusions.

“You don't make a photograph just with a camera. You bring to the act of photography all the pictures you have seen, the books you have read, the music you have heard, the people you have loved.”
Ansel Adams

Ps - Obviously it’s not “parmesan prints of the high sierras” it’s parmelian but final cut’s autocorrect changed it and I didn’t realise. My apologies!

Copyright disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research.

Under this guidance, I’ve created content which is guided towards the education, celebration and promotion of said photographs and photographers who have contributed immensely to the art of photography.

An effort is made by the presenter, verbally and through the usage of links (in the video’s description) to encourage the audience to explore the work presented beyond the video and engage with said content through books, articles and relevant links to each photographer’s own social media.

Therefore, I believe the inclusion of said images, footage and other sources can overall add depth and appreciation for the subject of the video whilst also enriching the visuals and dynamics of the it. All within what is within the fair use scope and YouTube’s policies.

#filmphotography #anseladams #art

[Graybeard_]

In high school I had friends who owned a lodge outside Yosemite. I would go down there and help them open it up in the spring and then visit them a couple of times in the summer. We would sneak into the park by my friend telling the rangers at the entrance we were picking up medical supplies for the lodge. Then we would do one of the day hikes like Half-dome. (sometimes the lodge actually did need supplies) One time in 1984 we were waiting on an opening for a wilderness permit (not sure which hike), so we all kind of split up for a couple of hours. I wandered over to the photography studio and hung out and listened to Ansel Adams give a talk about photographing nature. It was just a very short while after this that he passed. Someone told me later I had been present at his last informal talk in Yosemite. His talk sparked an interest in me to pursue B/W photography. I went on to become hooked on B/W photography in college and ended up the TA in the college photo lab teaching beginning students developing and working in the darkroom. This experience helped me discover a love for teaching. I spent my career as a teacher and school district administrator. So thank you Ansel for inspiring me and altering my trajectory in life.

[jeff]

In the early 70s, i had a chance to spend about 3 hours with a handful of other students with Ansel Adams. It was an experience that I would never forget. He certainly talked about visualization, and the influence that Alfred Stieglitz had on him. Stieglitz taught him to take chances, to break barriers. many years later, I attended a workshop in Ansel Adams's Yosemite darkroom, learning color theory from Bill Atkinson (Apple employee number 10) and Charles Cramer. Charlie is very much in the AA mode. He studied music at the Rochester School of Music. He is a very fine pianist, much like Adams. Charlie made his photography mark with dye transfer, until Kodak stopped making the chemicals. He still worked with film, until recently when he switched over to a medium format digital camera. Charlie is well worth a review on your channel.

[maxxmckinney]

A collection of his work came to my local museum and it was such a pleasure. I could have spent days there. What was cool was that for several images they had the copies of the same photo that he had printed early in his career and then again later. Looking at how his choices and darkroom skills changed over time was so cool. And while the images are fine on a screen, his large prints were simply astonishing

[dougmacmillan]

Nice! I especially like that fact that you gave Fred Archer as co-developer of the Zone System.

Ansel Adams was an instructor at my Alma Mater, Art Center College of Design when he and Fred Archer codified the Zone System. The Zone System is a structured, repeatable encapsulation of many common techniques known by the photographers of the day. It was an exploration of why Adams couldn't capture in a print what he saw and more importantly, what he felt.

Your description of the Zone System hit the high points, but it didn't discuss that Adams envisioned the print and worked backwards. He had a great understanding of the tonal range that can be represented in a good B&W print. That range is far smaller than what a normal B&W negative can capture. The trick is to come up with a negative using tonal compression and expansion that can fit in the range of the print. Exposure of the negative takes into account how it will be developed later. Since I was a student at Art Center, we dived deep into the Zone System. I used to mix up developer formulations not commercially available using the individual components.

With medium format digital cameras such as the Fuji GFX-100s, the use of Photoshop and printing with printers using dedicated B&W pigment inks can rival or even surpass the best B&W prints Adams achieved.

[Zopf-international]

Wonderful post. Growing up in Scotland in the mid 80's he was a true idol.
Not only with what he done, but the process of going through, what he went through.. To get it done.
The books in the high school library were treasures.
And I think that's important as we were a small high school on the East coast of nowhere, yet there he was.
And a nod to the teachers or staff older than myself who wanted those books there for us too, eh. Another generation touched.
And it's good to see so many people here.
I'm in Spain now and I have my own classes, and his books in my classes.

[qbnscholar]

Thank you so much for this. In 2014, for my 60th birthday, I was able to drive down on a "birthday pilgrimage" to Los Angeles and go to a Getty Exhibit of 25 of Ansel Adams works. I was able to go twice; the day before my birthday and on my birthday. On my first visit I went with a fellow photographer and on my second visit I went by myself. I still recall walking into the exhibit hall and turning left, seeing the picture of the birches that you feature starting at 6:54, when you talk about composition and leading lines. I was so hoping you would share this photograph in this video, since I have to tell you, not only was I mesmerized by this photograph, by being in its presence, but it was the composition, the way he broke the visual plane in half so beautifully, which is something I learned you shouldn't do, that moved me to tears. I stood in front of this photo for a long time. Actually, for a long time, several times, on both days.

Two more things about this picture during my time being in its presence:
1. It was the first photo in the exhibit that I saw when I walked in. I had never seen it before, so I think my surprise at seeing something so different from his usual landscapes shaped my reaction.
2. On my first visit, while I was talking to my friend about what moved me so about it, two other people who were at the gallery wound up joining the conversation, which turned into a fascinating discussion about the photograph, composition, and studying and learning photography. Yeah, my 2014 "birthday pilgrimage" to the Getty Museum in Los Angeles to see the special Ansel Adams show was memorable, to say the least, since at the time I had only seriously been doing photography for two years.

And yes, there were some of his better-known photos there too, but this print of the birches still inspires me, still moves me.


Again, thank you.

Also, BTW, very much enjoying your more nuanced, even more elegant video editing and formatting, as well as your presentation style. Very impressive thank you.

[davidgambin]

Amazing video, thanks. Also the use of a view camera allows you to play with the focus plane and get deeper dof

[JHurrenPhotography]

I've been waiting for this video from you! So sweet! Yes you have dropped nuggets of Adams inspired wisdom over the last year. Great work iterating it.

[terryclark]

Another great video, of course. I was fortunate enough to learn how to develop and print “the Adam’s way” by one of his printers back in the 70s. One day, after a year under his tutelage, I showed him a print fresh from my darkroom. He smiled and said, “Today the student becomes the master.” My training was complete.

[davidstanton]

Thanks for this quick video. So much can be said for Adams' contributions and more of it is relevant today than many people realize. But if I had to highlight one point in your video it would be pre-visualization. Knowing what one wants in the final product is key. All of his techniques from exposure, to development to the final print, were done in service to his initial vision.

[jacobh]

You’ve made a timeless introduction to a timeless artist, Tatiana. I really admire the constant high quality of your videos. Easily amongst the best content here on YT. Peace to you too…

[latitudemm]

He is timeless, when I first found out about him I genuinely thought his photos were taken recently

[michaelcase]

I remember a great quote from Ansel. He was an ardent environmentalist. He met with Reagan at the White House on environmental matters. After the meeting with Reagan reporters asked him how the meeting went. He replied "Mr Reagan knows the price of everything and the value of nothing"

[TechnikMeister]

It was not so much the taking of the photos apart from metering for the shadows, but what he did in the darkroom that produced the results. The large format gave him the detail, but the way he dodged and burned was genius.

[lensman]

This was a great introduction to one of the true greats of photography, Tatiana. Adams was ofcourse, a lot more than just about the zone system, which incidentally starts from the lens and ends with the print. He was a true conservastionist, when conservation of nature was not exactly fashionable nor on any US governments agenda. He was a humanist. You showed one of his photographs of the Manzanar Relocation Center for Japanese Americans. Adams was so disgusted about the treatment of Japanese Americans in the wake of the Pearl Harbour attack, that he set out to document their lives and strives in a remote inhospitable location by photographing them. He donated the colleciton to the Library Of Congress for free in 1965 with a ltter that said, "The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair, by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment....All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use." The late great Yousuf Karsh said of Adams " an artist, a conservationist and a true friend, whose photographs remain as unsurpassed testaments to the glory of nature ." I don't think that I could better that. Thank you & sorry for the long post.

[sansintierra]

I had no idea Ansel created the zones system. That system was my "ah-hah" moment back when I was studying photography and lighting, and became an essential part of my thought process when taking photos. So thanks Ansel and thank you for diving into his work.

[numbersix]

Thanks TH! Your conspectus of Adams' life, work, technique, was wonderfully comprehensive.
Incredible that you could do this, and include some discussion as well, within about 15 minutes.

[ReimannPembroke]

Great video! Ansel Adams is undeniably great as a photographer and artist. My first photobook was an Ansel Adams book and the amount of care he took in making his compositions was astounding. Taking my time and really thinking about the scene and how to best expose and frame it to convey different feelings is something I have been trying very hard to do well in my work.

[hunterjames.]

An absolute stellar video, T! Such in-depth research is a wonderful way to gain insight into one of the foundational photographers to study!

[Entitledtohappiness]

Thank you so much Tatiana. Your videos are amazing and so insightful. I’m so glad I found you!