Robert Adams Research and Pastiche Analysis

Robert Adams is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West. By being brought up by his father taking him on walks in the woods and being a Boy Scout as well as working at a boys’ camp in the Rocky Mountains you can understand his passion for exposing  the shocking effects we are having on the world.

In the early 60s Adams bought a 35mm reflex camera and took mainly images of the relationship between nature and architecture, followed by reading the complete sets of ‘Camera Work’ and ‘Aperture’ at Colorado Springs Fine Arts Centre where he learnt photographic techniques from Myron Wood, a professional photographer. Influenced by people like Timothy H O’Sullivan and William Henry Jackson, Adams began to document the Western landscapes of North America and how humans had shaped it.

Timothy H. O'Sullivan

He produced many series of work such as ‘The New West’ which focussed on the new suburban developments being built along the Colorado Front Range. His images portrayed a confliction between the beauty of the landscape and the human presence.                                                                                                                                                                                   He then produced ‘Turning Back’ which was a series looking at deforestation in the Pacific Northwest region of the US- again looking at the destructive nature of human beings on the world. Although his images are highlighting the way we are destroying the landscape he still manages to create a beauty, a tranquillity out of the chaos, such as his image ‘On Signal Hill, Overlooking Long Beach’, which although looks over a vast cityscape looks very quiet and still.

In an interview Adams was asked: ‘What do you think is the most serious threat facing the world?’ Of which he replied: ‘Overpopulation. It’s the fundamental, lethal accelerant for most environmental and social problems.’

Analysis of the image ‘On Signal Hill, Overlooking Long Beach’ 

Image description:

Robert Adams produced a book called ‘Los Angeles Spring (1986)’ which consisted of his images concerned with environmental degradation; this included the image ‘On signal Hill, Overlooking Long Beach’ which I am creating a pastiche of as part of the environmental unit.

The photograph depicts two very straggly, melancholic looking trees overlooking a smoggy cityscape, Long Beach. The trees are like on-lookers, horrified by the destruction and pollution caused by humans. Adams uses these two trees as a representation of nature in general, neglected and abused by industrialism and growing populations.

The way he shoots the image makes the trees look like the out of place, unnatural part of the photograph. At the same time the trees look weak, choked and straggly but still strong as if they are making a stand against humans, they will not let anything get past them almost like guards for the rest of nature.

Composed in a similar way to Casper David Friedrich’s ‘Wanderer above the Sea of Fog’ the trees act as the onlookers over what would have been an untouched land but has now been destroyed. By comparing these two images you get the feeling that the landscape beyond the figure in Friedrich’s image could now be the one we see in Adams’ photograph.

Visual choices- focus, distance, lighting, camera position etc.

-          It has a large depth of field as the foreground and background are both clearly in focus and it is possible to distinguish the main subjects of the photograph, trees and buildings.

-          The muggy haze over the city creates a very foggy horizon line, while in the foreground the trees are very defined and harshly contrast with the soft backdrop.

-          The lighting is very soft which would point to quite an overcast day, therefore the contrast between light and dark is quite bold but it does not wash out the subject in the background. The sky which takes up over half of the image is very blank giving the image a stark backdrop which makes the subject matter very obvious and eye catching.

-          The camera position is very close to the trees in the foreground level with them while it is very high up making it obvious that Adams is up on a hill overlooking a cityscape.

Process & techniques

-          The image is a black and white analogue image taken in 1983 and produced as a gelatin silver print

-          This process is the photographic process used with current black and white films and photographic papers.

-          The process consists of a suspension of silver salts in gelatin which is coated onto a surface such as glass or flexible plastic or film which then becomes light-sensitive. It is then possible to expose it to light and develop it as an image.

-          It is 9x11 inches in size which is a relatively small print highlighting the way that Adams wants his images to speak for themselves; he wants the audience to have to look closely at the image and discover for themselves, as an individual, the meaning of the image.

Social & cultural background

-          Since the late 60s Adams has always been interested in the changing landscape of the American West, the effects that humans have had on the environment and landscape as we take up more land for living on.

-          Adams sees it as a fallen state of a former Eden.

-          He says "The operating principle that seems to work best is to go to the landscape that frightens you the most and take pictures until you're not scared anymore."

-          Since the 16^th/17^th century the American West has been being invaded, captured and settled on and over time the landscape has drastically changed.

-          The American West when undiscovered and explored was untouched by humans, what was known as the Sublime landscape was captured by artists as this vast, exciting but frightening land, eg. John Gast, Albert Bierstadt & Casper David Friedrich.

-          Followed by photographers such as, Timothy H O’Sullivan, William Henry Jackson & Andrew J Russell who then began to document the invasion and industrialisation of the landscape.

-          They wanted to highlight the way that man had conquered this compelling, spiritual & vast beautiful land.

-          However the similarly captured views are now seen by Adams as destruction of the land rather than conquering of the land.

My feeling & reaction

-          When looking at the image myself I feel it is quite an emotive scene, on the one had the trees are overlooking the city giving a sense of power while on the other hand the condition of the trees are appalling as they look very abused and weak.

-          The foggy horizon creates a sense of pollution enhancing this feeling that nature has been abused by humanity.

-          The stark blackness of the silhouetted trees gives a very negative feel in the foreground while in the background it is very bright giving a sense of positivity as if the trees represent the viewer looking disgusted over the effects humans have had on the world while the people in the city live happily unaware of the effects of their actions.

-          As this image was taken in the 1980s I feel like Adams was very forward in his thinking, he wanted to send a message to the viewer that something had to be done to stop this increasing inhabitants and changing of nature and the landscape then otherwise the situation of pollution etc. was going to get worse, which it so obviously has.

I will now use my analysis of the photograph to create a pastiche of the image with certain ideologies taken from Robert Adams’ work in mind as well as the compositional values of the image such as camera position, subject matter and weather conditions.