Chicago, April 1943. “Mike Evans, a welder, at the rip tracks of the Proviso Yard, Chicago & North Western R.R.” 4x5 Kodachrome transparency by Jack Delano for the Office of War Information
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[6.09134] 1947 Kodachrome-New Bedford, MA (via Here) This is Eveline. She was a WAC on furlough.
you gotta love all of the details here, (Milk Truck, etc.), along with the Kodachrome.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/pVVgq2zN1pttubmbQt53QkIio1_400.jpg)
[6.09134] 1947 Kodachrome-New Bedford, MA (via Here)
This is Eveline. She was a WAC on furlough.you gotta love all of the details here, (Milk Truck, etc.), along with the Kodachrome.
Ansel Adams: Mauna Kea, 1948
Words seem to trot around my head aimlessly making it hard to gather the ones that will explain the beauty I see in this wondrous image created by Ansel Adams.
Adams, the black and white landscape photographer whom you may know as, “the poet of the gray spectrum”, is praised for his images of his beloved Yosemite National park where he shot a vast amount of his work.
The image above was selected from the newly revised version of Ansel Adams in Color that was released October 2009 that included 20 more, never released photographs than the old 1993 release of the book with the same name. The book shows a collection of images displaying Ansel Adams color photography.
This photograph was shot in Hawaii and is titled “Mauna Kea” after the inactive volcano in the background of the shot which, unbeknown by most, is in fact is the tallest mountain in the world in measure. Adams took the image on Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea’s neighboring volcanic mass, in 1948, about 18 years after Kodachrome color film was created and sold to the public, and also the median on which this photograph was taken.
The surroundings in the photograph seem to be somewhere up high on the island since the clouds lingering are low compared to the foreground and the sky seems to be a darker shade of blue compared to the normal skys I see from a normal view in the city.
In an image usually the first thing you seem to notice at first glance is what is being photographed, that which is tangible, but in my eye the light is the star of the photograph for it hits the tangible in such a way that it gives everything it touches the essence of life. It’s as if anywhere you look on the photograph, any pebble you eye focuses on is the main focus of the photograph as if Adams designed his shot around that single speck of rock that you happen to glance upon.
Moving up to the middle ground, we have a clash of two worlds; Earth and sky elements, and the light adds to the intensity of this, separating it from any other photograph taken like this at a different time of day. The absence of light on the ground and the potency of light hitting the clouds gives the colliding of the two natures a more dramatic effect in terms of texture and value. To point it out, you have here the sharp rigid edges of rock over a bed of clouds that could pass off as cotton balls and the extreme contrast between the two gives you the feeling that you are witnessing a true clash of titans.
My least favorite, but not a subject of discord is the background which is similar to the middle ground as it displays the sky in with light cirrus clouds giving an illusion of airbrush strokes hovering over the volcanic mountain. It doesn’t show much impacting detail as the middle and foreground but it’s not a terrible addition to the photo as it adds depth and more visual for your eyes to feed on.
If the image would have been taken at a different time of day and the light would be changed in any way or form, I believe that the impact this picture has on me would not be as endearing. Like I stated before, the light I feel is the main star of the photograph, it’s because of it that the image is a success, without the light where it is, I would just look at this and say, “Hmm, a pile of rubble and clouds, it’s just like every other mountain picture I’ve seen”. Also, if the image were to be taken from a different point of view I feel that it would still have the same impact, but that’s only because in my head I view a different position as a little more to the left or a little more to the right. If the photograph were indeed to be placed in a different angle, I don’t feel the shot would be as impressive as this. I feel it would take away from the beautiful layering and different textures in the pebbles and the clouds, so I believe this angle is the best for this shot.
I’d like to venture into the color spectrum of the photograph for it’s impression on my eyes is fascinating, so again starting at the foreground, the most alluring section of the whole photograph is the rocky ground that emits a strong shade of red, it almost makes you believe that it’s maroon’s true essence. The rich maroon on the left side of the image flows towards a gradation, turning for a more red-violet hue and then a slight blue-violet shade towards the top right side which demonstrates natures natural use of an analogous color scheme. The dark colored rocks that appear as specks in the gradation make them stand out more making your eyes want to focus and each and every single one so you can take in the beauty of it’s existence in life.
Proceeding to the middle ground, the black rock shows very little detail making the mass look almost like a torn piece from the photograph and it’s color makes the background clouds seem more intense that the ordinary clouds in daily life. The lack of detail in a way makes my brain angry because it wants to see what the unknown mass in between the fluffy clouds and the rough texture of the rocky ground in the foreground is, but despite this, it makes the image work in a way.
Behind the black mass, like stated before, is an ocean of strato-cumulus clouds that radiates this beautiful snow white with a slight of a tint of blue, that equally compliments the ebony mass below it and gives an encroaching effect to the right side of the blue-green sky above it, making it look like it cool bleed off the photograph, in contrast with the left where the clouds are absent and the ebony rock takes over making the sky look confined. Adding to the polar opposite contrast in color between the cloud and dark rock, it almost makes it seem like it’s a silhouette of the mountain due to this effect.
Following up to sky, I would like to get into it’s lovely hue of blue-green which makes it seem as if the beautiful clear Hawaiian oceans doubled at their sky as well. Mauna kea which is sandwiched in between the clouds and the sky plays at the perfect accent between the two with it’s dark cobalt blue shade. It seems amazing that even at such distance, my eyes can still make out the ridges on Mauna Kea. Adams is truly skilled at capturing amazing detail in a shot.
Overall, the different hues of reds and blues seem to dance all over the photograph and are separated by the impeding clash of black and white giving the photograph a nice depth and perspective. The look of the image as a whole reminds me of the long glass bottles I’d fill with sands of multiple colors as a child and I’d create beautiful uneven layers that I would call sand art. I don’t remember the colors I chose as bold and impactful as the ones photographed, but it’s a good analogy to summarize the over all look of this image. The beauty the colors present in the photograph was something Adams never thought could be achieved because he felt the quality wouldn’t have as much of an impact as one of black and white which is why he never made a print of his color shots would and is also why now, only after his death are images like this published because it is now felt that technology has the ability to portray colors the way he imaged them.
I feel if the photograph would have been taken in traditional Ansel Adams black and white, it would still be a beautiful shot and everything that I talked about with light and details would still apply, yet the richness in the color would be absent and after seeing it in color, I feel the world should be able to see the beauty in what was shot. It would be selfish not showing the world the variety of colors in the places most cannot afford to reach.
This photograph does a phenomenal job showcasing the natural beauty of Hawaii, and more over, the Earth since most of it’s facade is covered in housing and factories, which expand each year taking more and more way from our natural landscape. I feel this image speaks strongly about the cause Adams was for which was all about preserving the wild and the environment. In an excerpt from his biography it states, ” Adams was an unremitting activist for the cause of wilderness and the environment. Over the years he attended innumerable meetings and wrote thousands of letters in support of his conservation philosophy to newspaper editors, Sierra Club and Wilderness Society colleagues, government bureaucrats, and politicians.”
Given this information, I’m lead to believe that this photograph was taken to document the way Mauna Kea looked when no technology grazed it’s surface. About a twenty years after the photograph was taken, Mauna Kea Observatory was constructed on the summit of the volcanic mass. And although a great contribution to science, it takes away from the natural beauty that was Mauna Kea on the day that Adams took his photograph. Never again will someone be able to travel as high up as he did and view what is in the photograph with their own eyes without the disturbance of the Mauna Kea Observatory at the peak of the mountain.
Knowing this, it almost makes me feel guilty for enjoying the way buildings look and enjoying city life as much as I do. I take for granted the little green left on this planet and knowing that in a very near future, eventually the little green we have will be no more, that eventually technology will take over and having a tree in our yard will be more of a luxury, that the pebbles in my shoe will be a missed memory and that a starry night sky will be almost impossible to witness unless you travel to great heights where the glow of our artificial lights won’t reach and even then such a place will be considered myth. Thinking about that makes me want to contribute a part of myself to protect what little wild we have left so that for the many generations to come, those people can experience what we experienced when we were little and maybe, the next Ansel Adams will sprout from the them and we’ll have more beauty to visualize.
“…His images became the symbols, the veritable icons, of wild America. When people thought about the national parks of the Sierra Club or nature of the environment itself, the often envisioned them in terms of an Ansel Adams photograph. His black-and-white images were not “realistic” documents of nature. Instead, they sought an intensification and purification of the psychological experience of natural beauty. He created a sense of the sublime magnificence of nature that infused the viewer with the emotional equivalent of wilderness, often more powerful than the actual thing.” If this is the kind of effect that his images have on the people of America, I believe they can arose awareness in the people of the whole world if shown to more people who aren’t aware of his work, it might just help the fight to protect the wild in all places and not just America.
Over looking all this information I’ve gathered here, I believe the expression of this photograph is amazing and if Adams would still be here with us, he’d be impressed with the way technology works and the way we’ve been able to interpret his color images into tangible pages of art. I also believe that these new color images in Ansel Adams in Color document the use of Kodachorme file now that is has been discontinued by Kodak and that it’s existance will attract a wider audience, those who are not fond of the beauty of black and white imagery, and it will hopefully establish a message in their minds that they need to help preserve the little places of green that they take for granted and maybe, when a boy takes a picture of his favorite place in the forest, he can grow up, show his child and then he can go back to the place and it’ll look exactly the way it did when his father was his age.
Aviatrix and fighter plane. “Kodachrome.”
Rochester, New York, 1939.
