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Ansel Adams

This Short Documentary Reveals Ansel Adams' Creative Process

Inspire

Ansel Adams is recognized as the best conservationist American artist; he believed in the possibility and probability of humankind living harmoniously with the environment.

On February 2013, the endearing musician and photographer Ansel Adams (1902-1984) would have turned 111 years old. This is a symbolic event to remember he was the first man to capture the sublime power of nature through iconic photographs of the American West, especially those of Yosemite Valley. When it came to the preservation of wildlife and nature photography, Adams was a visionary figure, and he is considered a folk hero and a legendary symbol of the West.

‘Music is the most expressive art form”, Adam points out in the documentary “however, when creative photography is practiced in terms of its inherent qualities, it can reveal infinite horizons of meaning.’

In his days, Adams was criticized for not including people in his photographs and for representing an idealised nature that does not exist. Nonetheless, it is largely because of him that these beautiful parts of the world have been protected and preserved for future generations. In this way, the sublimation of a place through photography (or any other form of art) can interfere with its future. This is one of the legacies left by the photographer, to say nothing of the manner in which his photographs of trees, for example, we are almost able to discern the movement of their tops moving in the wind, or how the ocean, in this case, breaks against the coast. His are sophisticated images of eternal moments in the world.

The 1958 documentary Ansel Adams, Photographer, contains the original archive of this photographer, and it reveals his fortunate approach to photography —a work of art in itself—, the cameras he used and the equipment he carried to his field expeditions. He also left us some personal comments surrounding the horizons of photography.

 

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