Fine Art Photography

Fine Art Photography

Fine art photography is simply photos that are taken in accordance to the artist’s vision. Fine art photos are in contrast from commercial and documentary photography as its purpose is not to record or sell. Fine art photos can portray many messages and concentrate on different themes and emotions. 

Ansel Adams 

Ansel Easton Adams born February 20, 1902 and died April 22, 1984, he was one of the greatest landscape photographers. He was also an environmentalist. He loved being outdoors and exploring nature, and his strong love of photography came from a family trip to Yosemite national park. In 1916. He started to take photographs professionally in the 1920s. His success as a photographer is down to his elegant and well composed, technically perfect natural landscape photos. His black-and-white landscape photographs of the American West, especially Yosemite National Park, have been greatly used on calendars, posters, and in books. His reputation has been firmly established by his work being in exhibitions in practically every major art museum.

Ansel Adams along with other California Bay Area photographers, founded Group f/64, it was a protest against the sentimental and imitative style dominant in the turn-of-the-century, photographic trend of pictorial-ism. F/64 refers to the smallest lens opening on the camera through which light passes: images photographed at this setting produce a sharp focus and fine detail of subject matter. This group of photographers concentrated on exploring what they termed "straight" or pure photography. They focused on emphasising form and texture, rather than soft focus and emotionalism, and translated scale and detail into an organic, sometimes abstract, design. 

This image “Moon and Half-Dome, Yosemite, was photographed by Ansel Adams in 1960, its of a rocky cliff in America. This is a vertically framed image, viewing the cliff face of Half dome, one of the most iconic features of Yosemite Valley. Adams catches the fading moon above and slightly to the left of the   highest point of the mountain face. The sky is light around the moon and fades in to darkness behind the mountain. The contrast of black and white sharpens the details of the mountain like the cracks and dents and makes the viewer inquire  about them. Adams expresses his love of nature in this photo. He was once a resident of Yosemite Valley and thought it important to preserve its wilderness and the national park. Ansel composed this photo perfectly and strategically, finding the right angle to capture the moon rising over the mountain. Ansel photographed this mountain as he found it one of the most distinctively shaped mountain. The photo is darkened by the late afternoon shadows, this adds a mysterious atmosphere to the photo. Ansel Adams likes that he could capture this mountain in different lights that give it a different mood. This image is a long shot and even though the moon is one of the smallest parts in the photograph it is also one of the focal points and on its own makes up the center third of the image. The shadow at the bottom defines the bottom third.

This photograph, ‘The Tetons and the Snake River’, is Ansel Adams most famous photograph taken in 1942. It features a spectacular view of a mountain with ominous clouds seeming to settle at its top. This picture is in black and white which makes you look at the depth of the image. Adams is trying to show us that the focal point of the image is the beauty and deeper meaning of nature itself rather than the element of colour. The contrast of dark and light shades accentuates the definitions in this photograph. The mood of the photo is also changed when using black and white, it gives a more nostalgic and sombre energy to the image. Lines are important in this image, the curving line of the river leads the viewer back in to the image, without the river the image would be quite different. The river in this image stands out as it seems to lead to what we assume is the focal part of the image, the mountains in the background. It might have a hidden meaning, our life is one continuous path which leads to the focal point of our life, and the path is not the focal point but the way to the destination that we work toward achieving. Adams has perfectly framed this photo and chose to use a long shot in order to give us the full view of the beauty of this scene of nature. 

This photograph ‘Stream, Sea,  Clouds, Rodeo Beach’, was taken by Ansel Adams in 1962. We see a running stream of water, flowing in a curvy shape, almost like the sand has formed that way for the water to flow. The dark and light shades of the photo create interesting visuals. The clouds look light and fluffy, yet they also have a certain definition to the edges and a sense of sharpness. The clouds add character to the photo. Lines are important in this photo, we can see perfectly straight lines separating the clouds from the sea. This photo is beautiful with everything tying together. The stream flows in to the sea, the sea blends in with the clouds. The land around the stream helps you to see the shapes in this photo clearly and holds the image together. This photo is great as Adams captures the beauty of the unpredictable sea, which can form many shapes but he chose to capture it at this moment obviously fascinated by this view. This image looks like a long shot as you can see all the way to clouds and this angle creates depth to this photo. This photo is also composed perfectly in the rule of thirds with the stream centered in the second third.


Sam Taylor Wood

This photo comes from a series of Sam's photos called “Bram Stokers Chair” which apparently derives from the fact that like Dracula, the chair casts no shadow, and that creates an eerie, almost supernatural quality. The juxtaposition of the woman's shadow and the precariously balanced chair, all combine to produce an unsettling and strangely interesting image. In this photo the women has one foot on a chair that looks like it may fall and she is leaning off it. if you look closely at the image you can see that the right hand corner of the floor is in dark lighting. This shows you that the lighting is coming in form the left to the right and this is what produces her shadow on the wall. This is image is composed of a long shot as focal point takes up almost the full frame height. This photo is definitely posed and it looks the face of the woman is deliberately not visible which also reinforces mystery. Along with the fact that the artist decided to take the photo with her wearing only her vest and underwear plays with ideas of sexuality, vulnerability and jeopardy. The photo is obviously edited because no one can tilt on a chair like that.

Once again we see a woman suspended in the air. The way she is posing, her body looks relaxed and like she is floating. Again she is in an empty room and by herself, giving the audience a feeling that she is lonely. Also the fact she is in front of a window could suggest she is looking out of it, maybe she is trapped and is yearning to escape. This photo is a long shot as it shows the background. This photo has bright natural daylight coming through the window.

This photo shows a women who appears to be held above the ground by bunches of balloons tied around her body. The lighting on this images is focused on the women and causes a shadow of her body to form on the floor. The background is black which draws attention to the woman and along with the shadows in the corners, it creates an eerie atmosphere.  This photo is composed of a long shot to show the background. It looks like she is hanging in mid air and the balloons are holding up dead weight. The artist may be suggesting that she is dead and the balloons are carrying her away, maybe to heaven? This image has a supernatural quality to it.

All of Sam Taylor Woods work have the same technique, with each one being of a woman suspended in the air, with varying degrees of lighting. She allows frames them all similarly with most of them being long shots and the woman/ main image being the focal point of the photo. There is also a reoccurring use of shadow through some of her work, where a shadow appears behind the subject. In her photos, the woman is always alone but the use of a shadow could show that she is in fact not always alone. Her works tend to have a surreal theme. The images are based on things that are not possible in this life. In her photos the main surrealism is her attempts to float in air or fly.