Ansel Adams Influence On Environmental Photographer

	 In 1928 Ansel was an official photographer for the Sierra Club at the Jasper National Park in Canada. In 1932, Ansel opened the short-lived Ansel Adams Gallery for photography along with other arts. Ansel lectured and taught to make his living when his gallery was open.

Grand Canyon, and Sequoia National Park. His travels inspired him to help out the national

Ansel Adams was a photographer who was also an environmentalist who specialised in fully focused photos. Ansel Adams is one of the most respected and well known photographers in the world, known for his breathtaking land scape photos of the west of America, like the Utah mountains ect. Throughout his long 70 year old career he made a lot of work. He had over 500 gallery shows in his time which is amazing! His style included sharp and even focus, extensive tonal range, clarity of detail, straight or pure photography, close-up images or expansive sweeping landscapes and majestic, heroic images, full of national pride. His themes and interests in art and photography is the earth and all its features. He focussed the whole photo which I think is amazing because the detail is amazing and it’s all amazing because its black and white as well. It has greys which is good but everyone of his photos but he always has a true black and true white. The quality of light in

The Progressive Era was a period of social activism and political reform that grew from the 1890s to the 1920s. Social reformers and journalists, like Jane Addams, Jacob Riis, and Ida Tarbell were some of the powerful voices for progressivism. “They concentrated on exposing the evils of corporate greed, combating fear of immigrants, and urging Americans to think hard about what democracy meant.” Many progressive reformers wanted to end corruption in the government, regulate business practices, address health hazards, and improve working conditions. It was also an era of conservationists. Conservationists are people who protect and preserve the environment and wildlife. Throughout the Progressive Era, there were many conservationists who wrote and described nature, but the most well-known figure in conservation was John Muir. John Muir worked to protect Earth’s beauty by traveling and exploring nature, co-founding the Sierra Club, and by influencing others through his writings and by showing some of the most important people how the wildlife was magnificent.

Ansel adams and John Davies are both very famous and well known landscape photographers who have very conceptual ideas and techniques in their photography. they are both known for their brilliant black and white landscape photography.

Adams was living in the mid 1900’s when he saw how people were in constant stress and fear from war and rough times. In the period of this series of photographs world war and worldwide economic depression was present. Using photography he created black and white images of nature. According to Susan, he is delivering a message for a better world with his photograph. The picture of a surf on the California beach was made to help troubled people see beauty in their collapsing world. This photo begs people to let go of their daily struggles to go and take refuge in the enduring peace and wonder of nature. His passion for environmentalism was the driving force behind his work (Susan). He knew the impact of nature was enough to bring the world a little peace when it knew nothing but

John Muir is best known for his efforts to preserve the wilderness of the United States, which greatly contributed to the preservation of countless natural areas of the US through the National Parks Service. During his travels across the country and abroad, Muir recorded his thoughts and beliefs about nature and the fundamental connection people share with the earth. By voyaging into the wild and shedding the restraints and ideals of modern society, Muir argues that people can expand their understanding of the world and experience life to its full potential through immersing themselves in nature.

Being greatly influenced by his first trip to Sierra, Adams life was coloured by the stunning view of pine trees and white waters creating the desire for him to learn photography. Adams quickly became aware of aesthetic qualities in nature, such as light, the movement in clouds and wind revealed in the wilderness and used them to his advantages to convey these moods. Adams believed a photograph was an expression of ones view, not just of the subject, but life. Adams life was filled with the expression of nature, “in the mountains, rivers, and valleys of the West he saw poetry, he saw truth, he saw wisdom, he saw grace. To Ansel, the terrain was so gorgeously caught by his lens was not just earth and sky, but spirit and vision.” With such compassion for nature Adam could easily express and represent his current feelings and moods within a photograph. Adams photography progressed beyond emotional experience, Adams furthered photography as an art. By creating the zone system Adams gave each shade of grey a specific value, allowing for a proper exposure and development for each black and white photo. Along with Edward Weston, Imogen Cunningham, and Willard Van Dyke, Adams created the group f/64, going against the pictorial style using a small aperture to capture photos with great detail and definition, formulating the revolutionary of straight photography. Allowing for

Environmental documentarian, Bridget Besaw, combines both photography and film to advocate wilderness preservation and food sustainability. She creates “visual stories that serve as a rousting, yet romantic reminder of our collective instinct to care for the planet” (Besaw, 2015). Besaw’s photography captures a range of environmental issues from “threats to Maine’s wilderness, loss of working farmland in New England, restoration of crucial salmon habitat in the North Pacific, wilderness preservation in South America, and sustainable fisheries initiatives throughout the world” (Besaw, 2015). Besaw uses photography so others get “a closer understanding of and relationship to their own bodies and the planet that provides them with life. So for

A year after he had his first exhibition in the Smithsonian Institution located in Washington, Dc. with all his success in 1933, he decided to open his own gallery called, Ansel Adams Gallery for the Arts. As he became more and more involved in the conservation of wilderness so in 1938 he created a limited edition book, titled 'Sierra-Nevada: The John Muir Trail.' This book and a testimony before Congress would later go on and being a vital key to making Kings Canyon a National Park. Ansel would go on to put many photography exhibits, appointed as a teacher and much

As Adams pursued his work in both art and conservation the various lines of his life were beginning to converge revealing both the unity and the disjunction of his ideas. 137 His impact was felt on both spheres of influence. Using modern techniques of mass communications, Adams brought a vision of idealized wilderness to a broad audience and linked the environmental movement with nationalism and a romantic view of nature. The sustained popularity of his photographs illuminates a continuing public fascination with the wilderness landscape as both a place of beauty and a symbol of national identity and ideals. (Pacific 42) Most leaders within the conservation movement continued to share his ideal assuming that economic growth and wilderness

From a young age he showed uncommon interest in wilderness and the outdoors and grew into one of the personalities most responsible for defining what American wilderness means. In his twenties, Ansel demonstrated incredible mastery of the young art form of photography. Through his friendships and collaboration with other artists and environmentalists and through his many prestigious art shows and published collections he gained fame. He used his fame, strong personal voice and persuasive activism for environmental conservation causes such as ... and for environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society. In particular, Ansel Adams was inspired and captivated by Yosemite at a young age and found the mountains to be his calling. His passion to preserve the park he experienced as a young boy fueled his efforts.

The photographer I chose is William Henry Jackson. This photographer stood out to me because his photography was outstanding especially of the great outdoors. After going through the pain staking process of choosing a photographer he really stood out the most because of his photos of the outdoors. Even though he is an amazing artist he did marvelous work in the American West. He was more than just a photographer he also did some work as a painter in his early and later parts of his career. William Henry Jackson was also a publisher like most artists are. But, he was always a lover of art.

He was truly inspired to start his photography since he was really young, it begins with when his father and him were walking down Fifth Avenue and looking at the store windows he saw a bald man taking picture of a beautiful model posing against a tree. “He lifted his head, adjusted her dress a little bit and took some photographs. Later, I saw the picture in Harper’s Bazaar. I didn’t understand why he’d taken her against that tree until I got to Paris a few years later: the tree in front of the Plaza had that same peeling bark you see all over the Champs-Elysees.” Avedon recalled one of his childhood memories that helped him to grow his passion for photography.

Adams felt a sense of duty to share his knowledge of nature and photography. “…[Adams] was master teacher as well as a master photographer” (Schaefer, 1992). He wrote many books and taught students his art. Adams technical ability in the darkroom was magical. He set the standard for black and white printing. His discriminating taste and meticulously produced prints continue to amaze current generations twenty-five years after his death. Adams was an experimenter and a modernist with his camera.