A Different Perspective

A Different Perspective

Through perspective, each person can view the same object differently. In photography perspective is very important. The photographer's vision needs to be shown in the picture. If there is one photographer who if known for his unique perspective, its Ansel Adams whose photographs of various landscapes have been etched into human minds. It's through his influences, photographs, and use of color or lack of color that Ansel Adams became a wide know photographer with a very unique perspective.

Throughout Ansel's life, he has had many people influence his art. Like all artists, he was the product of complex influences and human contacts. The inspiration of Yosemite on the promising photographer is obvious and often acknowledged, but the role of other artists, as well as his influence on younger photographers, is less often noticed. When Adams began his photographic career, the style known as Pictorialism was in style for photographers with artistic pretensions or, as with Adams, aspirations. Influenced by New York photographer Alfred Steiglitz, whom Adams called "the greatest photographic leader in the world," photographers created carefully hand-crafted prints on soft-focus, textured papers. "Steiglitz taught me what became my first commandment," Adams recalled. "Art is the affirmation of life."

Ansels' photographs show how his perspective is different from the other photographers. "You don't take a photograph, you make it." This statement sums up how Ansel felt about his art. His pictures enlarged our knowledge what we don't understand. Adams felt, and his work expresses, an emotional contact with the natural world. His photographs always pay special attention to detail, plus a definition and depth of field required to achieve a sharp clear image. In one of his more famous photographs, Moon and Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, his respect for nature is truly demonstrated. The image is in perfect balance, and the use of texture, and contrast if typical of one of his photographs. He always let nature speak for itself, using raw and natural settings. Whatever he took a picture of, no matter how common the object may be, he allowed others to take on a different view. What's important in his photos if the play of lights and darks, the parallel and intersecting lines and arcs, the textures and shades, the commonalities and differences among all his photos. It's the abstraction and appreciation of composition and the pleasure that comes from the contrast that is depicted. Ansel could look at nature and see contrast and depth that other people could not. His view and pictures allowed people to view nature differently, to really appreciate and find the true beauty in it. Ansel is quoted for saying, "There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer." It's clear that no two photographers will see in quite the same way, choices are made both behind the camera and in the darkroom; Adams was one of those pioneers, without a master to guide his way, who practiced photography as an art.

Ansel Adams biggest influence on photography has been on black and white landscape. His zone system if the basis for how most black and white photographers choose to expose and print their images. Adams has a passion for quality in the printing. Like most of his peers, Ansel considered color to be a "flawed" medium. The color materials of the