 |
||
| 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. Juniper Cliffs and River, Upper Merced River Canyon, was a photograph Ansel Adams took in Yosemite Park. The Merced River is known for its glacially carved canyons, rugged mountains, and foothills. Adams was drawn to the clear and clean water of the canyons, flowing wild and mostly undammed down to the Sierras.  (For Grades 9-12) What Elements of Art can you find in this image? Line? Shape? Texture? What do you think carved the cliffs in this photograph? How do you think the trees survive growing out of the cliffs? Can you imagine yourself being atop the canyon taking this photograph? How could you have made it differently? |
||
| |
||
  |
||
Ansel Easton Adams American, 1902-1984 Juniper Cliffs and River, Upper Merced River Canyon Silver Gelatin Print, ca. 1948 Collection Museum of Photographic Arts Gift of Jack and Beverly Waltman 2003.030.003 © Trustees of The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust |
||
© 2005 CARE All rights reserved