London Trip (East End Galleries) 15.04.13 - National Maritime Museum: Ansel Adams
POSTED ON Monday, 29 April 2013 AT 14:00 \\
The first destination of our trip was the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The museum is home to a variety of historic maritime exhibits, as well as a temporary extensive gallery of the works of Ansel Adams.
the gallery space
The gallery space itself is quite decieving. From the outside it felt as though the exhibition was going to be rather small, but in fact the space was extensive and spacious, featuring prints of all sizes throughout. The exhibition starts by presenting the works at the beginning of Adams' career: a time when 'photography was in turmoil'- only photographers that made pictures that looked like paintings could be considered as "true" artists. Pictorialists used soft focus and coloured emulsions to give a handmade effect evoking feelings of literature and mythology.
The wall space was painted in warm shades of oyster, pink, grey and purple that was complimentary to the black and white prints on display: almost reminiscent of the colour of fogged paper. Small lights were used to highlight the works that were framed behind glass. Works taken on a box brownie were in a very dark room of the exhibition space, lit only using spot lights.
At the heart of the exhibition hung three large prints. They were made by hanging large sheets of photographic paper on the wall and then projecting light from an enlarger horizontally across his darkroom before being printed in sections. The three prints are coloured with a sepia tone which 'complimented the warmth of this ornate interior' where they would've been displated in a 65foot high banking room. The colour "egg yolk brown" of the prints was said by Adams himself to make the image last longer.
"I want to take pictures. I am tired of moving my fingers up and down under smug rules of past ages... I want to express myself freely, individually..." - Ansel Adams
The exhibition presented photographs of landscapes: of sky, land and sea, capturing waterfalls and waves in freeze motion with an Eadweard Muybridge feel. Other than Muybridge, Ansel Adams also took inspiration from Japanese art known as Ukiyo-e woodblock prints; where perspective is flattened. Adams believed that the photo should correspond to an artists emotional state at the time it was made.
my favourite works
Labels: ansel adams, black and white, exhibition, film, gallery, greenwich, london, monochrome, national maritime museum, photographer, photography, reflection, sea, ukiyo-e, water
