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November 11, 2005
MFA Assignment
**HELP: If anyone has the dates for some of my pictures, can you comment please? For some reason, I did not write two of them down. Thanks!
1) At one point, during my stay at the MFA, I just stopped analyzing of the photographs around me, stopped searching for my friends, stopped thinking about the studying for the Biology exam that I had to do, and let myself take a minute to observe my surroundings. The walls, stark and gray, gave this perfect backdrop to the intense photographs nailed to the front. These walls were displaying masterpieces, and they themselves had to be modest and unattractive in order to showcase the art. Interesting that, here I go again, back to my black and white theme, all the photographs were black and white, yet the walls were gray. Black and white were so pronounced in the pictures and yet the walls showed that there was this intermediate stage, this connection between the white and black in the photos. I found myself actually staring at the walls, thinking, how could the planners for this exhibit be more creative? The black and white photographs contained on these rectangular squares were placed upon the infinite gray color of the walls indicating that though these pictures only showed a certain person, certain landscape, or a certain object, there were infinite possibilities to their meanings, infinite ways in which to interpret and connect to them. The juxtaposition of these colors was so powerful to me that the architecture and the floors became secondary.
2) Personally, I did not bring many learnt assumptions about art into the museum with me, except for the ones that I was taught in class. I have never been one to analyze photographs, and sadly enough, before going to the exhibit, I thought “anyone can take pictures”. Now, I realize that I was completely wrong. I found that Ansel Adam’s work incorporated elements of representation, symbolism, and most of all, abstractness, the very concepts of art that had been taught to me. I assumed that all art would possess these ideas, but I, being logical and very literal, thought that these elements of art would be shown more concretely. Again, I was proven wrong. This was a real learning experience.
3) Winter Sunrise from Lone Pine, Sierra Nevada 1944 - Detailed and plain. Night and day. Black and white. Adams shows us this powerful image of sunrise, the phase of the time when the sky is neither dark nor light, day or night. He is trying to reveal this sense of an intermediate stage in our lives when we can neither see life in black nor white. There has to be some ambiguity. Our world, our lives cannot be that simple. He also breaks the light of day with the darkness of night. This one band of black mountains provides this stark contrast between the white snow-covered mountains at the top of the photograph and the white trees at the bottom. In addition, at the top and bottom of the photograph, the images are so distinct and detailed. The dips and rivets in the snow covered mountains are accented with shadows and the trees with the lone animal at the bottom of the photograph is also outlined and perfectly formed, whereas the black or the shadow in the middle is a solid color, void of any detail or definition.
Three levels of Visual Data: Ansel Adams incorporates representation into this photograph through the use of a landscape. He is “representing” a sunrise in Sierra Nevada. In this photograph, mountain ranges are towering over a plain with some neighboring trees and an animal, possibly a deer is grazing in the distance. The clouds are in clumps across the gray sky. The representation of the landscape includes many symbols as well. For example, the deer is a symbol of life among the large mountains. The deer can also be used as a frame of reference, to show the relative size between one part of the painting and another. The juxtaposition of the black and white mountains can also be a metaphor for racism, the white mountains in being the white race towering over the black mountains, the black race. The white mountains are casting a shadow over the smaller hills. This is a representation of today’s society, especially with the fight for equality between blacks and whites. This photograph, though maybe just intended to show a sunrise, is taken in such a way that I can have this abstract idea, just from the juxtaposition of the colors and the difference in the height of the two mountain ranges.
4) John Marin, Artist, Cliffside, New Jersey 1949- Immediately, when you look at the photograph, you see this intriguing look of surprise on a man’s face. His eyes just jump out. The picture represents a man, consumed in his artwork, in probably his office at home. He seems to be almost startled by the picture being taken (Representation). It seems as though, in this photograph, that Adams wanted to show everyday life, a man and his work or possibly, a man and his passion. Marin, the painter shown in the picture is holding onto a piece of paper. This grasp on the paper is an indication of some symbolism. It seems as though he is tied to his work or his hobby. I am not completely sure whether he likes his work or not. He is neither smiling nor frowning, indicating that he may be indifferent. His face becomes of symbol of his mood as well as his posture, which is quite erect. He does wear a suit, suggesting that he may be wealthy or at least well-off. When I first looked at the photograph, though, I realized something about the detailing of the picture. Every object in the picture, including the man himself, is rigid and possesses straight lines, except for a tiny painting with squiggly lines. This is abstract. For some reason, Adams included the photo in the background to show that maybe this man has another side to him other than his work. Though he may seem stately and determined, he also can be creative and free with artwork; yet, the painting is situated in the background, indicating that maybe only few people know about this other personality. This portraiture does not exactly relate to the landscapes that Adams photographed. Adams truly focused on the face of the person. The person is the center of his photograph and all there is a distinct background that just adds to the dimension of the picture. In many of the landscapes that Adams photographed, I realized that he does not focus on one aspect of the landscape. He showcases entire areas. There does not seem to be a distinct foreground and background in his landscapes. This is what I noticed, but I have not seen every photograph that he has ever taken.
5) Grass, Water, and Sun, Trailside near Juneau, Alaska 1948 - This photograph defines the term “abstract”. When I first looked it, I had no idea what it was representing. I stood at the photograph for about five minutes, just staring, until I finally read its title, “Grass, Water, and Sun”. I then understood. It was a very abstract photograph of blades of grass upon some body of water (Representation). Each blade possessed small drops of water that glistened in the sunlight (Representation). I took step back from the photograph and realized that, even though I did not see an actual sun, I understood that it existed and that there must have been some source of light to generate these the glean or shine on these beads of water. Actually, I believe, that in this photograph, the things that he leaves out, like the Sun and the origin of the water are the symbols (Symbolism). Ansel Adams creates this photograph to show that we do not need to see everything in nature in order to appreciate it. Adams takes a part of the whole; this part of the water only represents probably a tiny fraction of the entire body of water (Abstract). The analyzer cannot say where these blades of grass are from or what time of the day it is. Every aspect of this photograph is left up to the imagination, and I truly believe that is what Adams intended to do. I found this photograph incredibly powerful because my imagination ran wild. I could stare at that photograph and wonder all day what was occurring behind the scenes. In the end, though, in some ways I wish that there hadn’t been a title. I could have developed my own, what I thought the picture represented. This photograph relates to his work as a landscape artist because this photograph is a smaller snapshot of a landscape, a deeper look into the different parts of nature that make up a landscape like the water, the sun, and the grass (or the plants).
6) Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941- This photograph almost moved me to tears. I stood next to this landscape for almost fifteen minutes, soaking up every inch. There is no other way to describe my feelings for this photograph other than “I truly loved it”. I was at first drawn to the picture because of the religious symbols, the crosses, littered throughout the bottom of the photograph. I consider myself religious and just seeing that among the hills and valleys of New Mexico, where no one was insight, was a church, houses, and a graveyard. How powerful. The gospel is carried even further than large basilicas and cathedrals. God is apparent even in the smallest of villages and the widest of unoccupied land. What struck me was also that these people living in the middle of New Mexico still commemorated the dead and followed the Catholic customs for burial. The lit clouds in the background of the photograph could be seen as representing the souls of the dead traveling to Heaven, blending into the darkness, or abyss in the sky. And yet, there is this one light, the moon, that shines over the village. Whatever your domination, it is apparent that there is something Godly like about this photograph, that the light represents a higher power over the town, over all of us.
After being in New Mexico, for just a week, I had a personal connection to this photograph. My family drove from Colorado to Taos, New Mexico one summer. I saw exactly what is in this photograph. The rolling hills and small villages were breathtaking. We were fortunate enough to see a storm in the sky far away and then a rainbow. It was so magical. So, with this photograph, I carry some of my own sentiments and past experiences, which draws me even closer to it. The description of the photograph says that Adams was able to take this picture seconds before the entire village was consumed in darkness. This photograph is truly a gift. It touches me in such a way that, excuse the cliché, words cannot even begin to explain.
**Lastly, one of my favorite photographs that he took was the Still Life, taken in San Franscico (1932). It was a picture of eggs, an egg-slicer, a bottle of wine, a shower head, and a glass milk bottle. I connected immediately to it because it reminds me of my great-aunt’s house. Every Sunday, my family would visit her in Holyoke, Massachusetts. We would all sit around and talk in her old house that had been in the family for years. She would always have hardboiled eggs for us, and she would pull out the egg-slicer. My brother and I used to have so much fun cutting the eggs this way and eating them. Sometimes, I would take two eggs, just because I wanted to use the slicer. :)
-Christina
Posted by lcisgancarz at November 11, 2005 02:19 PM