Ansel Adams Music and Art

Nancy Newhall

          Newhall Passionate advocate of formalist photography, a curator at MOMA, and close companion of Ansel Adams.  Ansel Adams had a deep love for music, which influenced his photography work.  He relates photography with music, “the negative is the score; the print is the performance.” Time has led Adams to be more of himself even though the world was changing around him which seems like a similar life circumstance that many artist can relate to.  Newhall also writes in a way that she knows Adams very well.

            Something that has spoke to me while reading this essay is how passionate Adams seems to be.  As an artist, being passionate about the work you create is important because it allows the work to hold emotion and energy.  The beauty that he finds in the world is inspiring.  I also like how he does not appear to be full of himself.  He believed that too many artists were only concerned with expressions of their own egos.  For him there is too much beauty around to waste time on “self illusion”.  For me I think that the blend between the two is what is important.  Anything that an artist creates comes internally and externally.  Perceiving the external internally and then making it external again in order to show what is happening internally is what art is. 

           I can relate on another level with Adams perceptions of art with music.  Music is a really important part of my everyday life.  Listening to music helps with my creative process of creating art.  It motivates my movements and emotions to have a rhythm.  In my recent animation projects, I have been creating my own soundtracks and the power that art has when it syncs more than one sense is powerful.  I can visualize music in my head very well and when I draw in my sketchbook while listening to music I imagine my drawing as the music itself translating onto my paper.