I chose this article title because I thought it might attract your attention, mainly out of curiosity.
The man I am talking about is Ansel Adams. He lived 82 years and had a major impact on the art of photography, and yes, he had a crooked nose. If you search on Google, you’ll find photos of him, and you’ll see, sure enough, he indeed had a crooked nose.
How did that happen? Well, as the story is told, he was injured in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake when he was a little boy. An aftershock threw him into a garden wall, and his broken nose was never set properly, so it remained crooked the rest of his life.
He started experimenting with photography when he was around the age of 14, following a trip to Yosemite National Park. Over many decades that followed, he perfected his craft of photography and made major contributions to the art and science of photography with a passion to create outstanding images. His photographic work is known around the world.
I thought I’d share a few quotes by Ansel Adams. I figure his insights are way more important than mine:
- “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.”
- “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
- “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”
- “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.”
- “To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.”
- “Some photographers take reality … and impose the domination of their own thought and spirit. Others come before reality more tenderly and a photograph to them is an instrument of love and revelation.”
- “The only things in my life that compatibly exists with this grand universe are the creative works of the human spirit.”
- “Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.”
- “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it.”
- “Photography is more than a medium for factual communication of ideas. It is a creative art.”
- “A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.”
Most definitely, he was attentive to technical details, perhaps best known for his work with Fred Archer on the development of the “Zone System” for determining optimal film exposure, developing, and printing for perfect rendering of all image tonal values from black to white and all levels (zones) in between. I worked with the Zone System in my earlier years when I spent countless hours in the darkroom.
As I look over the many quotes by Ansel Adams that people post online I am grateful they keep his insights alive for the benefit of us all, but one thing stands out to me. Most of his greatest insights were about how we see the world, how we appreciate the art of photography, and how we appreciate the beauty of the world around us, and even about how we FEEL.
When you look at the technical details involved in developing the Zone System, we see he was surely great at the technical aspects, but from what I can tell from his many quotes is that the “technical” is secondary to the “art”. Or as he said, “There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.”
As many of you know, this is one of my concerns, that in this age of high tech photography, we can get all geeky about it and focus on fancy gear and miss what is most important, the art.
It is sometimes easier to obsess with “technically perfection” yet ignore the art aspects. We must always remember to focus on the art of photography: composition, emotion, light, shadow, mood, story telling, and so much more. If we just focus on the technical stuff, we’ve missed out on what is really important.
Focus on what is important.
By the way, it doesn’t matter that Ansel Adams had a crooked nose.
Happy Creative Picture Taking
Kevin Gourley
Great article Kevin! Helps me to set my priorities. Thx