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Articles
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| Ansel Adams photography exhibit reveals nature’s charm |
VOICE writes, "Ansel Adams photography exhibit reveals nature’s charm
BY MARK LONGAKER
In a poll of its visitors a few years ago, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston discovered that Ansel Adams ranked second only to Rembrandt as the most popular artist planned for its upcoming shows.
The Adams show arrived in Washington this month, and its popularity says something about the widening acceptance of photography as a fine-art medium.
Adams, though, was more than just a photographer. He was a careful observer of nature, noted for recording its moods, subtly shifting lights and infinite variety of patterns. His love for his subject led him to become a leading conservationist who championed the preservation of America’s wilderness as a director and longtime board member of the Sierra Club. "
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“Ansel Adams,” now at the Corcoran Gallery of Art after an international tour, proves not only the virtue of photography as fine art but also the great beauty and mystery of nature. Its 130 black-and-white images come mainly from the Lane Collection, the world’s largest private holding of Adams’ prints, and span the photographer’s entire 60-year career.
Born in San Francisco in 1902, Adams first visited Yosemite National Park at age 14. He fell in love with the place, and his life became inextricably entwined with it ever after.
He led Sierra Club hikes there and managed the group’s headquarters in the park. He met his future wife there and married her there. He also had a home and studio there for 30 years. And, of course, he photographed its peaks, valleys and waterfalls up until his death in 1984.
The show is divided into seven sections, beginning with one presenting Adams’ earliest photographs. From the 1920s and teens, they employ a softer focus than his later work.
The earliest picture, “Wind, Juniper Tree, Yosemite National Park” (about 1919), portrays a gnarled tree on a rocky mountain slope. Its off-center composition recalls Japanese prints, which influenced Adams throughout his life.
The highlight of this section is one of Adams’ most iconic images, “Monolith -- The Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park” (1927). The sheer 2,000-foot face fills the frame of the wintry picture, shot from a perch midway up and off to one side.
Adams darkened the sky of “Monolith” dramatically by the use of a red filter. He considered the image his first “visualization” -- a shot pre-visualized in his mind and emphasizing a scene’s emotional impact rather than its literal appearance.
In 1930, Adams met photographer Paul Strand and was forever changed as a result. Strand’s sharp images convinced him togive up his soft-focus approach and to take up photography full time, giving up his ambition to pursue a career as a concert pianist.
Two years later, he helped found Group f/64, which promoted photographs that were tonally rich, sharply focused and printed on glossy paper. A section of the show is devoted to images made during the group’s short life, notably a close-up of a rose lying on a piece of driftwood. Everything is in perfect focus, and the contrasts between the grain of the wood and the different textures and tones of the flower’s petals are extraordinary.
A section on Yosemite photographs from the 1930s and ‘40s follows. It features one of Adams’ best-known shots of the valley, “Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park” (circa 1937). The primordial scene shows distant mist hanging over lowlands framed by jagged cliffs, down one of which spews Bridal Veil Falls.
There’s also a section on the American Southwest, highlighted by Adams’ most famous photograph, “Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico” (1941). Adams was speeding toward Santa Fe in his station wagon when he noticed the moon rising above Hernandez, and he had to act fast to catch the last rays of the sun on the town.
Other sections document Adams’ association with Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keefe, as well as his photography of national parks like Yellowstone, Great Smoky Mountain and Alaska’s Denali.
A closing section includes two folding screens Adams made and covered with his photographs of leaves and grasses. He made many such screens for friends, but few survive. These recall Japanese imagery in their natural abstraction.
“Ansel Adams” will continue through Jan. 27 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th St., NW. The gallery is open Wednesday through Monday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday until 9 p.m. Admission is $14 for adults, $12 for seniors/military, $10 for students and free for ages 6 and younger; (202) 639-1700; www.corcoran.org.
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Posted on Oct 12, 2007 08:46am.
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