Contextual Research

Black & White Photography Black & White photography has been around since the 1825, (This is said in Ansel Adams biography on the official website) and has influenced a lot of people in the media industry especially film. When the first camera was discovered everyone was shocked as it was something different at the time. Photography has been around in the industry too for a long time it is a creative sector that has captured a range of moments in society which are significant. Elements of photography interest me, a lot of images can be taken uniquely. Social media takes a large part in the media industries growth. There are many photographers who post their portfolio/work on Instagram. Photography has changed since it first came around. Technology has changed and photographers have changed the way how they can take certain shots due to the equipment and strength in today’s generation. Black and white photography first started off with motion pictures and film it has progressed so much. I am interested and excited to experiment and to perfect my final end product. I have looked at black and white photography on Instagram, it has helped me expand my ideas and my creative look on my project. There are huge amounts of photographers who are independent who have their own unique style. In the 1930’s Ansel Adams published his work through his books. It is very knowledgeable it is also great for upcoming photographer’s media creative students. In 1839 (according to the official science and media museum website) colour was added to photography, the society was shocked as it was something different, to see colour was significant as they only had black and white. Colour revamped and changed the world, photography and film. Back then a lot of people didn’t understand the perspective and how it came about.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Ansel Adams, photographer and environmentalist, was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Charles Hitchcock Adams, a businessman, and Olive Bray. The grandson of a wealthy timber baron, Adams grew up in a house set amid the sand dunes of the Golden Gate. When Adams was only four, an aftershock of the great earthquake and fire of 1906 threw him to the ground and badly broke his nose, distinctly marking him for life. A year later the family fortune collapsed in the financial panic of 1907, and Adams’s father spent the rest of his life doggedly but fruitlessly attempting to recoup. An only child, Adams was born when his mother was nearly forty. His relatively elderly parents, affluent family history, and the live-in presence of his mother’s maiden sister and aged father all combined to create an environment that was decidedly Victorian and both socially and emotionally conservative. Adams’s mother spent much of her time brooding and fretting over her husband’s inability to restore the Adams fortune, leaving an ambivalent imprint on her son. Charles Adams, on the other hand, deeply and patiently influenced, encouraged, and supported his son.

Ansel Adams Ansel Adams was known for his landscape photography, he was also known for being an environmentalist. (In Ansel Adams official website) Which I find interesting, as a final product I would like to try research something different as well as studio based black and white photography. Ansel Adam was given his first camera at the age of 12 according to Ansel Adams official website. This is really inspiring as he started from a young age taking interest in photography not knowing his talent or knowing it would be life changing for himself. Black and white photography will always be a strong element of photography due to its history and effect in the industry. In the 1930’s Ansel Adams published his work through his books.

Yousuf Karsh belongs to that small elite group of artists whose work has not only affected our perception of people and ideas but has also helped to influence the course of history. The publication of his famous photograph of Churchill on the cover of Life magazine in 1942 is generally accepted as having played a large part in diverting the attention of the American public to the plight of Britain and convincing them of our fighting spirit and determination to survive. Karsh has always had a special relationship with Britain, for following the international success accorded to him for the Churchill photograph, in 1943 he boarded a Norwegian freighter containing a cargo of explosives which was bound from Canada to Britain and stayed in London to photograph wartime leaders and intellectuals. Many of these photographs were published in the Illustrated London News and played their own part in raising the nation’s morale. Since then he has returned to Britain many times and on one of his visits in 1976 photographed the Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher. Karsh’s ability to produce the ‘definitive’ portrait of so many of the great men and women, not only Churchill but Kennedy, Khrushchev, Castro, Hemingway and others, was not achieved lightly. In addition to the long sittings he often required, he researched his sitters thoroughly before meeting them, and his careful studio lighting, which he first learned with the Ottawa Little Theatre in the 1930s, is legendary. Courage, too, was required, for who else would have dared to pull the cigar from Churchill’s mouth or persuaded Khrushchev to dress up in a large fur coat?

Yousuf Karsh Yousuf Karsh is an exceptional photographer as he has taken so many good quality images which has influenced me to interpret my work differently. I still want to use some elements of his work in my project. The styles and the authentic side of his work is very good and is up to a very high standard. Yousuf is the master photographer of the twentieth century which is a big accomplishment. In my opinion both case studies relate very well to my question. They are both independent unique photographers in complete different sectors of photography. One explores landscape black and white environmentalist photography whilst the other explores politics and portraits of significant figures. This has made me realise different techniques used and also the similarities in black and white photography. Black and White photography still holds its vintage look. Compared to contemporary photography in today’s society, the technology has risen a lot since the first camera came around. There are a lot of photographers who experiment and have the equipment to edit their photography.