Nancy Newhall - Ansel Adams: The Eloquent Light - Cat Boyce

Newhall noted that Adams once wrote, “Photography makes the moment enduring and eloquent” (270). In his photography, Adams is searching for moments of beauty captured through the use of passing light or mood to yield a new perspective on the subject he is portraying. Although I had previously known this, I never had the perspective Newhall gave into Adams musical background influencing his photographs. Adams was trained as a concert pianist and he compared the negative to the “score” and the print to the “performance.” Newhall explores these ideas, and notes that Adams believes as he is composing a photograph that reality engulfs him with “configurations in chaos” which he then “kinetically observes” until he chooses his composition that achieves “an entirely new and different experience which is remote from actuality in many ways.” Adams is versatile in being able to photograph a wide range of forms and evoke a vast amount of emotions. Just like some of the most famous composers, Adams is able to capture climax’s in moments, therefore creating crescendos in his own artwork.

Newhall goes on to discuss how Adams compared a fine print to a symphony experience. That feeling of engulfment from being submerged in live music gives goose bumps and a surreal feeling of warmth. Adams seems to believe that a fine print can give that same sense of being consumed by the imagery. I would agree and say that photography has the power to evoke emotion and feeling just as much as music does. Although a photograph may seem like only one note, I do think it has the power to be read as a whole composition.

At a talk at Yale with Mary Virginia Swanson last week, she briefly mentioned her time working with Ansel Adams. She remembers him fondly and shared that he loved to educate those who wanted to learn. Swanson said that he would teach people in his own personal darkroom and loved to be surrounded by other creative individuals. He was one to teach, help and extend a hand. Apparently, he often had cocktail hours, in which he would open his home up to anyone.  I found it very interesting to learn about her experience and Newhall’s while working with him  as well as what they thought about him as a person and as a photographer. It was enlightening to read this article by Newhall, and hear about Swanson’s experiences first hand.

I always thought of Ansel Adams as one of the most famous photographers, if not the most iconic for people who don’t really follow the history of photography. I found myself in a conversation with an individual, just weeks ago when I was photographing for large format just to find out that he had no clue who Adams was. Granted maybe if he saw the work, he would know who I was talking about. However, I was intrigued by that conversation because I have known Ansel Adams since I can remember. I thought it was almost common sense. Regardless if Adams is not as popular as I thought he was, I do find the beauty in his work that Newhall explained was so important to him. I believe his work will go down in history forever (as it already has). I also think it is interesting to see the parallels in his photographs to his background as a concert pianist. I think it’s interesting to learn more about photographer’s pasts and interests because everything comes full circle in influencing who they are as a person and photographer.