Analysisi Of Ansel Adams

Analysis of Ansel Adams

In this paper we have to analysis one of Ansel Adams photographs in order to identify the visual argument that Ansel Adams is trying to portray through his photograph. We are trying to pull out key details in the photograph to truly understand what Adams wants us to really know about this historical event and why this photograph was shot the way it was. The photograph that I choose to take a deeper look at was "Line Crew at Work in Manzanar". I choose this photograph because I felt that it had the most details that I could pull out to come up with my final thesis statement.

I felt that this photograph had the most interesting details that I could analysis so I could come up with a good thesis statement. I knew that the more details that I could find the easier the paper would be to write. To recreate the photograph there are a lot of details that I would need to include in order for the reader to really visualize what is going on in the photograph and by using the 10 on 1 method you find a different meaning to the detail.

The first detail that I had noticed when I looked at the photograph would be the people working on the telephone pole. With all of the vectors, in the photograph, most of them are pointing to the people working on the telephone pole right in the center of the picture. All of the telephone poles in the picture make you look up, and theirs also the pieces of wood on the home, that's in the picture, that also makes you look up at the people working in the photograph. When you first look at the photograph you see the two men on the ground, the first thing you notice about these men is that they are looking up at the men working on the telephone pole. With all of these vectors pointing to the people on the telephone pole the vectors they make it clear that they are the center of attention.

The next detail that you notice when looking at the photograph is what the people on the telephone pole are doing. They seem be looking at the down at the man trying to hold one of the wires. They don't seem to know what they're doing and don't seem to have the right equipment to be working on those power lines. For an example, another detail, the car in the photograph, like the last detail is doesn't seem that the people working in the camp don't have the right equipment. Instead of having a truck to carry there tools around they have a car, and the ladder that is in the back of the car doesn't seem to be big enough to use so they had to use belts in order to climb to the top of the telephone pole. In the movie that we had watch before this unit started, the government was making this place seem like a real community, and the people there would have the right tools and supplies to live like they had been doing in their own home. But with out the right equipment this doesn't seem like this is possible. Also maybe the people on the telephone pole weren't properly trained to do this kind of work.

The homes in the picture all look the same; they are one room bunker style homes that are very close to one another and there doesn't seem like there's a lot of space to do any sort of activity outside of these homes. With all these buildings set up this way it reminds me of a set up that a summer camp or a P.O.W camp would use.

Since our attention is focused on the telephone pole we see that they seem to be putting up more power lines. This can mean a couple things; one is that the community is growing and that they need to build more homes to satisfy the popularity of the community or two would be that in the community not all of the homes had power right away and that it took some time to put it in each home. Looking at these men putting up more power lines tells me that, like again I reference the movie we had watched about the camps, the government was right in the they could start they're own community and that they were given jobs. Also that this looks like it could be promising and that they Japanese will gladly stay here to start there own community from scratch.

With everything going on in the picture it is hard to miss the large mountains in the back ground. They seem to cut of the community from the outside world, meaning not people can't get into the camp or leave the camp. This gives me a feeling of isolation from the rest of society.

Keeping our minds set the environment, like the last detail, when you look at the ground in which the community is set up it looks like there in a valley which has no grass and only sand. This gives me a feeling like the community was set up in a new frontier. The people of this community wanted to tame a new frontier, just like people did when the explored the Wild West.

Another detail that you can notice by looking at the ground is that there isn't any sort of roads. There's no dirt, gravel or cement roads leading to any of the homes and it certainly doesn't seem like there are any roads that come into or leave the community. This is just like the mountains in that it acts like a barrier to keep the community separated from the rest of society. It almost seems that the people who started the community put it in a location to keep the Japanese isolated in this one location.

The way the picture is taken is at a downward angle. This gives us the viewer a sense of power. Having the picture taken way makes me feel like I am the boss watching over my employees making sure there doing there job correctly. Or you could say that Uncle Sam is watching over the Japanese and everything activity that they do there seems to be someone watching.

The last detail that I found when I was looking at the photograph is that the only people in the picture are the ones working on the telephone pole. Nobody seems to be interested at all