What makes a landscape?
Born on February 20th 1902 Ansel Adams in San Francisco California rose to fame as a photographer of the American west. His black and white images showed fine art within photography. His images were used for environmental purpose. His work showed natural beauty within landscapes. Adams work consist of so much detail and extreme lines and layers. I also like the way he it was not possible for him to manipulate the images so this is the true beauty of the landscape. His work has lots of contrast and tonal ranges within them and a lot is going on in each image however I do not feel the image is to overpowering, as Adam shot in film a really long exposure would of been used to get the detail for this he would of needed a tripod. On his first trip up to Sierra Nevada with a Kodak no1 brownie and started taking shots. sources from national geographic (October 2011) state he said "I expect to be broke if I keep up the rate I am taking pictures," This statement shows that film was very expensive however Adams did not want to give up his dream just because it was expensive and that he did have faith in himself when it can to making a living.
William Eggleston has almost changed the way we look at landscapes as he showed landscapes in a way that injected colour. Born in 1939 he was an American photographer.He is know for being the genius of colour. A source written Eric Kim shows a quote from martin parr written about William eggleston this states. "His color is just sort of the color of nothing, if he likes- just ordinary life. And its funny that originally he started in black and white and moved to color. And I guess for him, it wasn’t an issue. But at the time, you have to understand, if you were a serious photographer you had to be working in black and white. So when he came along and did this sort of nothingness color, it wasn’t decorative, it was just ordinary life –it was quite radical, because it was so underplayed. And it took us a long time to understand and appreciate that.” and I feel this is a really big reason why William eggelston made a breakthrough as he had the confidence to use colour why everyone was else stuck to black and white.
composition has been done really well in these images as he uses a lot of rule of thirds and lines. This technique makes the images more easy to read as your eyes follow the lines creating dimension and depth to each image. The colours in the image are extremely strong and just like in Ansel Adams work a lot is going on in each image yet again it is not overpowering. He also shot in film as well and i feel this helps a lot with the effect of the images and the graininess. The colour shows extreme passion and enthusiasm in his work and this also reflects his personality and feelings towards photography. I do agree one the statement that he is the genius of colour as I feel the film he has used to shoot did bring out these extreme colours he wasn't afraid to experiment.
After my research and evidence I feel one of the main factors about creating a landscape is composition as this is shown strongly in both Adams and Egglestons work. Both use lines and rule of thirds to create depth and dimension within the images. Both also use a lot of texture within the images but Adams does seem show more as he did high contrast black and white however Adams did shoot at a wider angle so he could get more detail within both would of used long exposures to get this as they both shot in film. Yet both capture the natural beauty of the landscapes both in a different way Egglestons focused a lot more on street and man made things why Adam focused mainly on natural landscapes and mountains. I feel both have contributed massively in the way we look at landscapes and landscape photography today they are perceived now as something beautiful and unique instead of using it as something to just fill in the space. I feel this would not be the case if it wasn't for these two photographers, they push way out of there comfort zone and was not afraid to try new things. Both of their work was extremely unique the time they were around and both photographer did think their images threw carefully before shooting them. In a way i do feel Ansel Adams did have more of a impact as he started taking landscapes first and his work does show so much detail because of the black and white contrast however William eggleston did modernise landscapes by injecting these big bright colours into these landscapes. Overall i feel both photographers made a massive impact in the way we see landscapes today and they were big influence's to photography as a society.They have taught many photographer to push yourself out of your comfort zone and try new things as this is what they did as got amazing results from it by also shooting with film they both show that the process to a great landscape photo isn't quick and it does take a long time and thought in the shooting and development. I feel this still applies to digital photography today as I think you do really need to think about your photos like composition to produce good photos.
http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/04/01/10-lessons-william-eggleston-has-taught-me-about-street-photography/
http://carterlandscapephotography.com.au/what-is-landscape-photography/
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/10/ansel-adams-wilderness/poole-text
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