Would Ansel Adams Embrace Digital Photography?

Ruins of the San Geronimo Mission of 1846. Taos Pueblo, Taos, New Mexico. (click to enlarge)
Olympus E-M1 Mark II; 12-100mm f/4 Pro Lens @ 14mm; 1/250th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

Ansel Adams was my first major influence after I became enamored with photography.  I fell in love with photography and later, when I initially saw his work, I was 'blown away' by the power of his black and white images.  I had no idea that photography could be so dramatic and powerful.

After I started photographing seriously, I studied Adams intensely.  I bought several of his monographs so as to see and understand the breadth and depth of his work.  Also, when I wanted to complete the entire photographic process by developing and printing my own negatives and prints, I bought (and still have) his classic book series, "Camera and Lens,"  "The Negative," "The Print," "Natural Light Photography," and "Artificial Light Photography."  It was that series that guided the first several years of my photographic education.  I must have read each a dozen times.  I bought a 4" X 5" film camera and jumped head first into the Zone System.  But I digress.

We mostly associate Adams with his monochrome photographs of Yosemite National Park, the Sierras, the American Southwest, California coast and as the quintessential slow, measured, deliberate completely analog landscape photographer who mostly used a huge 8" X 10" view camera mounted on an oversized tripod.  We think of the incredible tonalities he was able to draw out of his negatives and prints as well as the dramatic black skies, the detail and sharpness contained in his images.  Personally, I had never seen anything quite like his landscape photographs and those photographs are probably the main reason which propelled me to spend the next 51 years studying photography, making photographs, printing my negatives and now, sharing all of the knowledge I've gained over those years.

But Adams may surprise you.  He spent much time being employed to create commercial and advertising photography for many companies.  He photographed for Kodak and others with color film.  He shot with Polaroid film for the Polaroid Corporation.  He not only photographed landscapes but made portraits and did some documentary photography as well.  He taught workshops in Yosemite and published many, many books.  It wasn't until the late years of his life that his prints sold for prices that could guarantee a comfortable life.

Recently, I stumbled across a couple of old films about Adams that have now been converted to video and uploaded to YouTube.  (Ansel Adams BBC Master Photographers, 1983 and another is Ansel Adams, Photographer, 1958, Narrated by Beaumont Newhall)  In those videos, I found some interesting things about Adams.  For example:

He used many different cameras, not just his trusty 8" X 10" camera.  In one film, in 1958, when preparing to go out to photograph, he packed up and loaded into his old converted Cadillac limousine with a 5 ft. X 9 ft. platform attached to its roof the following:

1  8" X 10" view camera; four lenses; twenty film holders

1  7" X 17" panorama view camera; 13.5" lens and five film holders

1  4" X 5" view camera; six lenses

1  Hasselblad 2 1/4" X 2 1/4" film camera with 4 lenses (38mm, 60mm, 135mm, 200mm)

1  Contaflex 35mm film camera, 1 lens

2  Polaroid Land Cameras

3  Exposure meters; 1 SEI and 2 Westons

2  Tripods, one light and one heavy

1  Lens brush

1  Stop watch

1  Thermometer

1  Level

1  Focusing magnifier

1  Focusing cloth

1  Hyperlight (?) Strobe Portrait Outfit

200 ft. of cable

Filters for each of the above cameras—K1, K2, Minus Blue, G, X1, A, C5, B, F, 85B, 85C, 81, 82 

Special storage boxes for film

Adams may have been the photographer who had the original case of GAS!  Lol

Here are some interesting facts I discovered while viewing these videos.

When Adams first started photographing, he says that he mainly made photographs during his summers in the Sierras "primarily making records, a visual diary", but when he saw Paul Strand's negatives in Taos, NM, in 1930 he decided he would give up his profession as a concert pianist and dive full time into photography.  He felt he wasn't able to do both at the level he felt necessary so one pursuit had to be abandoned.

"None of my images are realistic in terms of values...," says Adams.  He refers to tonal values that don't represent reality.  He talked about changing contrast and tonal values in order to bring out what he visualized in the final print.

He uses the term "visualize" but he is often credited with the term "pre-visualization."  I never heard him say that even once in the videos.  I don't think I've ever read where he had used it.  He routinely used the term "visualize" as in visualize the final print before he pushed the shutter.

When asked if a photograph represents reality or interprets reality, Adams replied, "It should be an interpretation but it can also be a document, it can represent it."

When asked if he had taken the perfect picture, he replied, "No, the perfect picture is around the corner, like prosperity."

As far as the question in the title of this post is concerned.  Would Ansel Adams embrace digital photography?  Here are his words that I transcribed directly from the interview in 1983.

"The thing that excites me is, that in not too many years we are going to have an entirely new medium of expression in the electronic image.  So, I've seen what could happen to the print reproduced by the laser scanner and how that is enhanced and that is just the beginning.  I've also seen some magnificent electronic images—direct electrical—not pictures of pictures and I know the potential is there and it's going to be wonderful."  Ansel Adams. 

There you have it.  I think from that statement we can safely assume that Ansel Adams would have loved to be alive today and be able to use the digital tools we have at our disposal.

Finally, a little tidbit of Ansel Adams trivia.  What was his license number on his old converted Cadillac limousine?

(California License plate) EVJ-068

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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