Ansel Adams Art in the Classroom Burr Elementary School Written by Eric Denoyer
Have you ever looked at a picture that made you say Whoa!!? How do pictures like this of waterfalls make you feel? What is it about pictures like this of waterfalls that make you feel that way? If you were walking through the woods one day and came across this scene, do you think you d stop and notice? Why? I m going to tell you about a photographer who did stop and notice things in the wilderness. In fact through his pictures our whole country was compelled to stop and notice our great wilderness. Do you think its easy to notice a waterfall? Why?
Well this photographer who I am going to tell you about didn t just notice great big noisy things, but also many subtle things in the wilderness as well. How is this picture different from the other three of waterfalls? Does it make you feel different? Why? Instead of looking up all the time, this photographer also often looked down. In fact, he looked all around and noticed beauty in many different places. This photographer was Ansel Adams, an a famous photographer he was. He was famous for several reasons which we ll discuss, and at the end you can tell me whether you think he deserves to be famous. He also has a famous nose you can see it s kind crooked and bent to the left but I ll tell you more about that later because his nose didn t make him famous. He was famous for at least two reasons.
Here s a picture of Ansel with his Mom and Dad a typical family portrait. In fact when he was a boy, photography had been used mainly for portraits of people. Well one of the reasons Ansel Adams is so famous is because he was really considered the first photographer who didn t just use photography as a means for documenting families and groups, but also as a medium to produce works of art. He was brought up in a house overlooking the ocean in CA. Living there, he spent a lot of time listening to the surf and looking at the beach and he noticed how different the same old beach looked as the light changed throughout the changing seasons or during the day. Has anyone ever noticed how changing light can make the same thing look different? Can you give me some examples? Light can also change with weather and Ansel Adams learned early on that nature was not always predictable Would you consider this a work of art? Why or why not? How many of you have seen beautiful pictures of the outdoors before? Where?
To get the type of pictures he became famous for, he had to use a much bigger camera than the brownie. It looked like this. With this type of camera, the film was on metal plates treated with emulsion (that s the chemical that reacts to light). They were very heavy, and he could only use one at a time. Imagine trying to carry that up a mountain. But sometimes he had help. Let s look at some of his most famous works now and see what we think about them. Think about the elements of art when we look at the following works. Lets see how many of them he uses. His favorite place was Half Dome, in Yosemite National Park, the mountain sharply sliced down the middle. He said it was never the same Half Dome, never the same light or the same mood If you ever get to go there, you can see the mountain looking much the same as it does in these photographs.
Has anyone ever seen a geyser? What do you find interesting about this photo? Is there anything much going on in this photo? Are there multiple values expressed in this photo? What elements of art do you see in this photo? What kind of art/style element contrasts are at play? How does he use the element of line and shape in this photo? What does the river do for the photo? Is there an element in this picture that does a similar thing that the river did in the previous picture?
How about in this picture? What is this picture about more about the foreground or the background? What does one do for the other? Do you think Ansel Adams spent a lot of time composing his pictures? Why did he compose this photo this way what does the composition do for the photo? The shape of the reflection is important to the composition. Why? How does the foreground relate to the background in this picture?
Usually foreground is on the ground how is this photo different? Usually dark areas in a photograph recede (go to the background) why are these pictures different? Do you see any lines in this photograph? Ansel Adams felt nature is the greatest piece of art. Ansel didn t have an airplane. How high do you think he had to climb to get these shots? Here the receding elements are lighter. Does repetition do anything for this photo? How about in this photo?
How would you describe what this photo is of? I think it s of someone s house and front yard can you see it? Does this look like Fairfield, CT? What elements play in this photo (curves, texture) Ansel thought what you don t see in a picture was as important as what you do see. What do you think this means? So do you think Ansel Adams deserves to be famous? Why/why not?