Thoughts on composition, learning from Ansel Adams

[Drew Wiley]

This cracks me up. A thread combining the concept of composition with the name of AA. Well, he did study music and hang out with all kinds of visual artists. But just how many of that famous circle of photographers like AA, EW, BW... I could go on and on, ever went to art school? Probably ZERO, which is a good thing; otherwise none of their signature work would even exist, and we'd have a bunch of namby-pamby "follow the rules" stereotypes instead. I have nothing against workshops, museum lectures,classes etc. But c'mon, who ya kidding? Craft can be taught, but at a certain level, you've either got an instinct for personal composition or you don't. ... *Those who know best*, like who? As if I haven't been around the block. .. But Randy, I know about that education trap. In High School only dummies were allowed in shop classes, and the rest of us were forced to read Sophocles and Chaucer. I finished all my necessary classes in two years but they wouldn't let me graduate at 15, so it was either art classes or cross-country running most of the day. I chose the latter. It was entirely rural and mountainous, so not like a city environment whatsoever. In college I was bored to death with the curriculum, so mostly did independent study, geological and palaeo research, etc., again allowing lots of outdoor time, though all I had was a little
Pentax and Kodachrome. I've learned ten times more on my own than from any kind of formal instruction.

[Tin Can]

I took all AP courses and placed out of the first 2 years of college.

But was very angry when they told me I would still need to take and pay for 4 years of college to get the same damn bachelors degree.

[Drew Wiley]

I was lucky and had the blessing of several cutting-edge research professors who had themselves bucked the system. But when it came to geomorphology, they had to teach because real science was a pariah to both the Bureau of Rec and Army Corps of Engineers, who were paid to efficiently flood New Orleans over and over and over again via stream channelization. But the War was on, so I had to scrounge any job I could. Now one of my nephews makes a handsome living with his own Geophysics firm, doing conceptually the same kind of studies, but using a lot of computer modeling. And developers just keep building and re-building in the stupidest possible locations. The Army Corps now accepts the laws of physics, but the officials above them apparently don't. I witnessed a "once in a thousand year flood" hit five years in a row. ... real smart, building on river beds and atop slumping steep hillsides.

[jp]

This cracks me up. A thread combining the concept of composition with the name of AA. Well, he did study music and hang out with all kinds of visual artists. But just how many of that famous circle of photographers like AA, EW, BW... I could go on and on, ever went to art school?.

AA "worked" at an art school; California School of fine arts according to Minor White's biography.
That wouldn't happen now; a person with no college being in that position... But there was a big need for that with the GI bill creating many students.

[Tin Can]

AA "worked" at an art school; California School of fine arts according to Minor White's biography.
That wouldn't happen now; a person with no college being in that position... But there was a big need for that with the GI bill creating many students.

It sure won't happen now. I thought I might get a second career by getting an MFA.

My mistake, it still was fun.

Actually the best time of my life.

[Drew Wiley]

AA's teaching role is well known. He was a commercial photographer that scraped together a living all kinds of ways. He was nearly 80 before he could have realistically made a living off "fine art" alone. But then he was never a "starving artist" type and expected a middle class standard of living. Lots of people who made their name in the arts later became teachers. Some of the best would howl at the thought of an MFA being needed at all. My aunt got her four phD's as a hobby after she was already teaching art in a major university with no degree at all. The proof is really in the pudding. Yeah, there are two well-known LF photographers in my neighborhood who took the academic route, one by basically being supported by his wife,
the other the tedious starving artist gallery tour route. Both eventually succeeded. Most don't. I haven't joined the new hyper-expensive UCB facility, even though my wife has an alumni discount. It's mostly geared to alt films (movies), buts lots of MFA still work is shown there, precisely of the kind that looks like it was done for the sake of an MFA, self-consciously "creative". Various University alt movies get shown routinely on the local PBS station. Nice way to potentially attract a big producer, but there is a ton of competition around here, just like tech careers.... Randy - what I like even more than that portrait is the
warped window reflection picture with the plane way off in the corner. You visualize like the kid you still apparently are! Thank goodness for fun.

[Jim Jones]

Two of the best artists near home got their training in commercial art school. There they acquired basic knowledge and were left alone to make the most of that. By the time I was a freshman at age 40 I know enough about graphic arts, and more than the instructors about photography. It was fun, though.

[Tin Can]

Plus 1

Makes my day!

[Daniel Casper Lohenstein]

This cracks me up. A thread combining the concept of composition with the name of AA. Well, he did study music and hang out with all kinds of visual artists. But just how many of that famous circle of photographers like AA, EW, BW... I could go on and on, ever went to art school? Probably ZERO, which is a good thing; otherwise none of their signature work would even exist, and we'd have a bunch of namby-pamby "follow the rules" stereotypes instead. I have nothing against workshops, museum lectures,classes etc. But c'mon, who ya kidding? Craft can be taught, but at a certain level, you've either got an instinct for personal composition or you don't. ...

Hello,

I think Ansel Adams learned very well and very much about art in learning how to play piano. He learned about composition, rhythm, chromatic/accidential/harmonic chords, singularization of tones, counterpoints ... It's not difficult to transfer such things into other art forms, I know a german painter called Nikola Dimitrov, he's a piano player, too. his paintings are compositions that want to affect directly the synapses.https://nikoladimitrov.de/leinwand_grosse_formate.html

Back then, was there even an art school in San Francisco? As far as I know AA had a ticket for a great exposition. And then he figuered as a member of the Group 64, claiming to do straight photography. Later he worked at an art school, as far as I know.

BTW: is is "straight" to travel miles with a car, to carry five different and entire systems of cameras and two tripods in a car, to take a few pictures of a scenery one is waiting for hours to the right moment?

The photgraphers didn't had much to learn then, they took their knowledge form examination of paintings. They knew that one has to overexpose and to underdevelop to get copyable negatives. this was widely known, and AA developped his zone system out of it. Albert Londe wrote a book about photography with silver gelatine negatives, and he even mentioned increasing of contrast by underexposing an overdevelopment, in 1883 ... This was public, but not systemized, because all photographs developped ther orthochromatic plates by examining the results while processing.

Then AA wrote down his observations, as every good explorer, and now we have got exactly what you described: the "bunch of namby-pamby 'follow the rules' stereotypes instead", people wasting their precious time in calibrating their films and developers, the pH of rinsing water, and examining the sharpness and accuracy of their large format lenses, doing photographs of brick walls etc.

Nothing is "straight" in this attempt, never was. Lomo is straight, the interaction of human beeings, forgetting that there is a camera, but not the fuss that AA produced to get his pictures. If I would have had (?) the opportunity to wander around with AA, I would have taken e.g. a photograph of a lonely person with a tripod and a great apparatus over a see of fog, like the painting of Caspar David Friedrich, or a monk by the sea.

Just read "The Eloquent Light", written by Nacny Newhall. She writes down several pages of text, describing all the exaggerated preparations made by AA to travel into Yosemite valley, including the breakfast (a great steak - I always wonder how people are able to eat steaks, beans, eggs, white bread as a breakfast ...)

- Edward Weston: he seems to be straight, regarding his life, his equipment and his method, but certainly not AA.

Tody we have got millions of broken branches, tons of epic landscapes without any trace of civilization, mountains of fishing nets, algae, even more breaking waves and water than tanks on Fukushima, all placed in zones III to VIII, we got Bruce Barnbaum explaining us never to place textured shadows in III, it would be one of the seven deadly sins ...

In my opinion, although I admire him, AA is "Mr. Follow the rules" himself.

Tschau zäme,

Daniel

[Vaughn]

Hello,
...
BTW: is is "straight" to travel miles with a car, to carry five different and entire systems of cameras and two tripods in a car, to take a few pictures of a scenery one is waiting for hours to the right moment?

...

- Edward Weston: he seems to be straight, regarding his life, his equipment and his method, but certainly not AA.
...
Daniel

Yes, it is safe to assume EW was straight and not gay.

I'm straight and drove 900 miles with 6 cameras in the van (11x14, 8x10, 5x7, two 120 roll cameras and a digital), three tripods, and 50 or so film holders of various formats. Photographed in one place for a month (with many long waits) and drove straight back home.