Illuminations: Nancy Newhall

Blog Post to Illuminations by Nancy Newhall

Ansel Adams: The Eloquent Light

Ansel Adams is most known for his work in the national parks taking extremely clear images of the beautiful landscape the United States has to offer.  I have known of Ansel Adams work for a long time, but never really had gone into much of why he took the photographs he did, or what he wanted to say with them.  I always thought focused more on the formal elements but chose beautiful subjects.  I had always thought that he just wanted to achieve clarity through these places that couldn’t be captured without photography.  Through Nancy Newhall’s writing I have been enlightened to a different view of Adams’ work.  Adam’s himself had studied to become a concert pianist and he made an interesting connection between music and photography that I think is relatable to all people who are both gifted in music and in art.  He stated, “The negative is the score; the print is the performance.”  I am not at all musically inclined, but the parallel he draws is intriguing.  A final point he makes which made me realize I was interpreting his work all wrong.  Adams says, 

“Some photographers take reality as the sculptors take wood or stone and upon it impose the dominations of their own thought and spirit.  Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.  A true photograph need not be explained, nor can be contained in words…my photographs are presented here as ends in themselves, images of the endless moments of the world.”  

I had always thought that Ansel Adams’ work was strictly formal and although his pieces have a focus of formal elements he captures a moment to preserve and show the beauty in it.  He doesn’t have any deeper meaning to it, and he doesn’t impose his views upon his work.  He creates the work to share the moment and the beauty.  Adams, to me, seems to think his work is a higher form of art since it preserves a moment and elevates it through his photography.  I think that although his work is beautiful, other works that say something about reality or change a viewer’s perception of it is still an art form that can be elevated as high as his work.  Especially because I am an illustrator and a visual storyteller I enjoy pieces that make me think differently or take formal elements to tell a story.