Ansel Adams – A Giant of Art, Photography

Photo of Ansel Adams (Wikipedia)

It happens only once in a generation that a person arrives to completely revolutionize the accepted norms of the art world.  In the twentieth century, this titan was Ansel Adams, a California born photographer that gave photography its artistic identity and made it stand firmly on its own merits.

Before the arrival of Adams, artistic photography was more like an imitation of other mediums than its own art form.   The imitation of paintings, through Pictorialism, was popular in the early 20th century and the main accepted art style for photography.  Imitating other art mediums did little to contribute to the credibility of photography as its own art medium.

The arrival of Adams changed that.

Utilizing the core strengths of the medium, Adams put photography on the map based on its own strengths.  His approach of leaving a photograph unaltered while using exposure, focus, and contrast to achieve spectacular visions (Ansel Adams Gallery) made the art form unmistakably original.  This puristic approach put photography on the same artistic level as other mediums of art and, finally, photography stood tall on its own.

Do not get me wrong, the art world is never still, it is ever changing and artists are continuously pushing the boundaries of their art forms.  It is just that pioneers such as Adams, the ones that bring credibility to a whole art medium, are so rare that all future artists are lucky to stand on the shoulders of such giants.  We should remind ourselves that it hasn’t been that long since fine art photography was nothing more than a shadow of paintings but, thanks to Adams, this is now far from reality.