Photographer Ansel Adams, on Display

¶ … photographer Ansel Adams, on display at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Specifically it will contain a critical review on Adams' work, including a review of the exhibit. Ansel Adams is perhaps one of the most famous landscape photographers in the world, and his work shows many elements of the photographic message suggested in the text.

The content of Ansel Adams' photographic message may seem clear, but a closer look at his photographs indicates that is not the case. Adams is mainly known for his detailed black-and-white images of landscapes, especially throughout Yosemite National Park and the Sierra Nevada, but as this show indicates, he chose other subjects, such as the Los Angeles Freeway interchange that is a study in modern art and architecture, but also contains many photographic elements common to Adams' work. Thus, the content of Adams' photographic message is more varied than some people might think, which is one of the surprises a viewer may come upon when they visit this exhibit. Adams' work does convey a "message without a code" because the message is very clear and easy to see in most of his photos. There is no hidden meaning or agenda in the works, just a clear love of the natural world, the landscape, and everything surrounding the artist. It is clear he had an appreciation for the outdoors and the many varied patterns in nature, and that message shows itself every time you view his work in the gallery.

Adams' style, on the other hand, has a clear message. His style is stark black-and-white, with an obvious appreciation for shadow, light, and the many different nuances these elements can produce in a photograph. His treatment of each image is detailed and extremely sharply focused from edge to edge, but the most striking thing about his photographs is the obsessive attention to shadow and light, using light to highlight just the trunk of a tree or the sensual curve of a freeway onramp. Adams was a master of light and darkroom development, and that is the style he developed and is most remembered for during his career as a photographer.

Framing of these images is simple, which makes them even more stunning and arresting in real life. If the viewer has only seen some of Adams' work reproduced in posters and prints, these original photographs can be extremely impressive and magnetizing. Some of them seem larger than life, and they all show the incredible detail and lighting that mark all of Adams' work. It is difficult not to imagine how long the photographer waited to get just the right light, just the right angle, and just the right exposure to create these works of art, and it is hard to be inspired as you view these classic images of some of the most beautiful spots in America.