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| Ansel Adams stands as one of America’s greatest landscape photographers. Born in San Francisco, Adams was trained as a concert pianist. His first photographs were made at the age of 14 using a Kodak Brownie camera during a visit to Yosemite Valley with his parents. This visit strongly influenced the course of Adams’ life. By age 30, he had changed his path and chosen a career in photography. Adams’ photographs are elegantly composed and technically flawless. Ansel Adams proved a tireless investigation of the methods of photography, pioneering a method called The Zone System, a technique which allows photographers to translate the light they see into specific densities on negatives and paper, thus giving better control over finished images. Throughout his career, Ansel Adams became well-known for the clarity of his instruction and his hands-on workshop approach to the medium. Ansel Adams advocated the role of photography as a fine art, inspiring new ways of seeing and communicating. He influenced generations of photographers though his teaching, practice, and publishing endeavors, and has gained standing as one of America’s best-known photographer. Clouds Above Golden Canyon, Death Valley, CA features feathery-like cloud formations above a mountain horizon. Adams captures the white clouds forming against their deep sky, with every detail of the textured mountain top in view. This image was made in 1946 on one of Adams’ many trips to photograph the West. Death Valley is known as one of the hottest, driest, and lowest places on earth, a land of extremes. Adams was fascinated with its subtle beauty and said, “"The whole world is, to me, very much "alive" all the little growing things, even the rocks. I can't look at a swell bit of grass and earth, for instance, without feeling the essential life, the things going on within them. The same goes for a mountain, or a bit of the ocean, or a magnificent piece of old wood."  (For Grades 9-12) Where do you think Ansel Adams was standing when he made this image? Which vantage point did he use? Why do you think the artist showed more sky than mountains in this photograph? Can you find any texture in the clouds or on the mountains? How would you describe this texture? Adams’ believed that everywhere he looked he saw life, even in rocks and mountains. Do you see life in this photograph? Explain your answer. |
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Ansel Easton Adams American, 1902-1984 Clouds Above Golden Canyon, Death Valley, CA Gelatin Silver Print, ca. 1946 Collection Museum of Photographic Arts Gift of Joseph Isaacson 1993.013.010 © Trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust |
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