ANSEL ADAMS: Classic Images
Frozen Lake and Cliffs, The Sierra Nevada, Sequoia National
Park, California, 1932
This image is copyrighted by The Ansel Adams Publishing
Rights Trust and cannot be printed or reproduced in any way. The
use of the photograph is limited to viewing in the context of this
Main Source: Examples - The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams, pp 11-13
A. What do you observe?
This image is a striking organization of contrasting shapes, textures
and values. The smooth reflecting water contrasts with the craggy cliff;
the white floating ice and the black lake form a calm horizontal against
the tense vertical of the abruptly rising gray rocks. The irregularly
shaped mound of snow acts as a visual buffer. Adams used these elements
of art - shape, texture, and value - to create a composition that, although
of a recognizable subject, could be termed abstract.
B. Does the scene strike you the same as it did Ansel Adams?
Are the looming cliffs, extreme cold and isolation threatening? Or
are other feelings aroused, such as wonder and curiosity? Does the photograph
stir any association or memories? Adams said in Examples, "
believe I was able to express in this photograph the monumental qualities
of the subject that I responded to so intensely at first sight."
He asked himself the question, "why do I see certain events in
the world about me that others do not see?" There were several
good photographers nearby, and "the scene was before us all, but
no one else responded with creative interest
With all art expression,
when something is seen, it is a vivid experience, sudden, compelling
and inevitable." The visualization is "called forth by some
miracle of the mind-computer," not consciously, but is "a
summation of total experience and instinct.".
C. How did Adams arrive at taking this photograph?
On a hiking outing with the Sierra Club, in the most spectacular region
of the Sierra, he came across this scene at what was later given the
descriptive name of Precipice Lake, which lies at the base of Eagle
Scout Peak. "The lake was partially frozen and snow banks rested
in the recesses of the cliffs. I was impressed with the solemn beauty
of the scene and saw the image quite clearly in my mind."
D. How did the philosophy of Group f/64 affect his vision?
Adams joined with Edward Weston and other like-minded photographers who were disgusted with pictorialism, which they thought was soft-focused, romantic and sentimental and imitative of other media such as painting and drawing. They promoted straight" or "pure" photography, which they defined in their manifesto as photography that did not derive from any other art form, but must "develop along lines defined by the actualities and limitations of the photographic medium "
James Alinder, in Ansel Adams - Classic Images, wrote that for Adams, Group/64 provided a unity of thought and style, and "proposed methods that would produce images with the most distinctively photographic characteristics." They used large 8X 10" negatives, lenses that gave extreme optical sharpness, and contact prints with a full tonal range. Adams' work underwent change. Adams took the group's convention of doing close-up views, and transferred it to landscape, his preferred subject, in Frozen Lake and Cliffs. Alinder observes, "Without a defining horizon, the frame filled with fragmented granite shapes takes on a new sense of abstraction."
Did Adams himself see this photograph as "abstract?' He says in
Examples, "I was not conscious of any such definition at the time.
I prefer the term extract over abstract, since I cannot change the optical
realities but only manage them
For photographic compositions I
think in terms of creating configurations out of chaos, rather than
following any conventional rules of composition."
E. What problems did he face in the years before he developed the Zone System?
Adams describes in Examples how "the deeply shadowed recesses
of the cliffs contrasted with the blinding sunlit snow" and taxed
his "intuition and the range of the film as well." The ice
of the lake was glaring. He had not yet developed his Zone system, and
couldn't precisely measure the luminance. He made an educated guess
and "hoped for the best." He said he was "fortunate"
in his results in these years of his "technical insufficiencies."
After he developed the "Zone System, the guesswork was removed
from unfamiliar situations, and good control of results became possible."
F. Technical Aspects
Frozen Lake and Cliffs was taken early in his career when Adams said he "did not yet have the necessary craft to relate exposure and development precisely for optimum results." He had not yet developed the well-known Zone system. The negative is degraded from being developed in exhausted developer, which makes it "very difficult to print." It requires considerable craft in burning in areas to balance the tones. "Making the print involves the use of many controls and trials to obtain results that approximate what I saw and felt when I made the exposure."
G. Related links in this site
Housatonic Museum of Art