Each week we will be featuring a different photographer, discussing their influence on the greater photographic community and providing some interesting and inspiring quotes they have made during their career. While most of these photographers will be well known throughout the world, we will also endeavour to introduce you to some the wealth of Australian photographic talent developed here.
Our first featured photographer should be known to most photography enthusiasts.
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) – “A good photograph is knowing where to stand”
Ansel Adams was born in Golden Gate, San Francisco and was to spend most of his career documenting the west coast of America. Best known for his large format black and white interpretations of the landscape, he was also a passionate educator and advocate of the American National Parks system. His early membership of the Sierra Club enabled him to both extensively visit these dramatic areas but engendered in him a desire to photographically document them as well. His development of the “zone system” of film exposure and development (albeit complex) was to set him apart from other photographers. He was a friend of Edward Weston and a contemporary of Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand – but Adams was the master of the landscape.
Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico; 1941, Gelatin Silver
Whilst better known for his use of the large format camera (5×4” and 10×8” black and white negatives), Adams had a long connection as a consultant to both the Hasselblad and Polaroid companies. Much of his later work was to be shot on the 6x6cm Hasselblad format.
Adams is well known for his 1941 image “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, but I have included in this short resume of his work the image, his 1960 image Moon and Half Dome which is usually shown as a black and white print but was originally shot in colour using the Hasselblad camera.
A complex and larger than life person, Adams is still regarded as a benchmark for any aspiring landscape photographer.
Ian Poole.
Moon and Half Dome; 1960 Gelatin Silver
