Ansel Adams Quiz



ANSEL ADAMS

Photographer

This year in 4th grade we’re looking at different types and kinds of art. So far we’ve looked at sculpture and ceiling painting in Italy (remember Michelangelo?); a French Impressionist painter who explored color theory and painted with separate dots (Seurat?), then we looked at realism, with some art that gave the illusion of something physical/tangible attached to the canvas (remember Americans Peto & Harness?) And, just last month we learned about pop art from the 1950s, 60s and 70s with the images of film stars, celebrities and commercial products elevated to the role of fine art worthy of art museum and millions of dollars! (remember Andy Warhol.)

Well, today we going to look at another art form: photographs ( and the work in particular of America’s most famous photographer: Ansel Adams.

Write name on board. Has anyone heard of him?

First, I’m going to tell you a little bit about him. Then, we’ll look at his work.

Ansel Adams was born in California, in San Francisco in 1902. In fact he was born on February 20th (today’s date: isn’t that a coincidence!) He lived a good long life and died in 1984 – about 15 years before most of you were born. So 1902-1984… does anyone want to work out how old he was when he died? Raise your hand when you know.

His earliest memory was from the age of 4 years old. When a big earthquake shook San Franciso, he fell out of bed and was thrown against a wall so hard that he broke his nose. We’d probably all remember that if it happened to us (

Anyway, as a young child he was given a lot of freedom and a lot of free time to explore his neighborhood, to go beyond his back-yard to climb, to roam, to explore nature, to collect bugs. He lived on the coast, by the beach and sand dunes. And, most of all he LOVED to run. He ran all day, errands for his mother and then just for the fun of it. To that end, he had a hard time sitting still and so he found school very hard. He didn’t want to settle down and pay attention. He often felt trapped. , And so – not surprisingly -- he was often in trouble for being disruptive and for fighting with other children (. Finally at about aged 10 his parents realized it wasn’t working. From that age he was home schooled, by both parents, and his aunt Mary who lived with them, and also his pastor. His parents were v.v. supportive of him – enabling and encouraging him always.

Shortly after that, he realized how much he loved music, and he began to play the piano. He was very good and it was the first thing he was really able to concentrate on. In fact, he was so good that for many years he trained to be a professional pianist and seriously pursued that career path.

His Aunt Mary fostered a love of reading in him and he borrowed a book from her about Yosemite National Park which completely fascinated and absorbed him. So much so that he started to try to persuade his parents to take a family vacation there. They weren’t very enthusiastic. So he kept reading passages to them about the many powerful waterfalls, and describing how the bright starry nights would look away from the city. Finally they relented! When Ansel was about 12 years old they went on vacation to Yosemite. AND, they surprised him with a present: a camera! A significant gift for a family of modest means.

After that vacation Ansel Adams went to Yosemite regularly. As a young adult he became a tour guide there, and a summertime custodian and really spent years combining his loves of hiking, exploration, and photography.

Let’s look at his work. I have just one large reproduction, but lots of books with great reproductions. Because I think it’s important for you to see lots of his photographs, rather than just focusing in on one shot.

Also, let’s remember that we’re NOT talking about photographs taken with today’s digital cameras or automatic point and shoot cameras ! Ansel Adams camera was a large format camera called a View Camera. Show cover of book. It was heavy – at least 30+ lbs. and required lenses, and a tripod. You had to be strong to carry it. It took time and effort to transport and set up. It wasn’t an impulsive snapshot, but rather a considered picture that was thoughtfully composed, with specific subject matter, where the color or the tones of light and dark were chosen, where depth and scale were selected, where the photograph was developed and printed by Adams himself to manipulate the emotions of the color/shade relationship.

-- Look at pictures --

Questions:

Where was Ansel Adams standing?

What was he standing on?

What time of time is it?

What’s the weather like?

Can we tell? Is the sun shining?

Where’s the horizon.

Are there people?

Are they all b/w. Show some of the color.

Let’s do a fun quiz now. Oh, and I have some chocolate chip cookies to share!

I thought they look black and white like Ansel Adams photographs (

After the quiz…. We can watch a little bit of a video I’ve brought in that show Ansel Adams at work.

Ansel Adams Quiz

What Kind of Photographer Are You ?

1. Have you been to a national park?

o Yes

o No

2. Had you heard of the photographer Ansel Adams before today?

o Yes

o No

3. Have you used a camera?

o Yes

o No

4. Would you like to have a camera

o Yes

o No

5. If you were a professional photographer would you rather photograph

o landscapes

o portraits and people

6. Which do you think makes a more powerful picture?

o a mountain covered in snow and ice

o a mountain covered with spring time flowers and sunshine

7. Do you prefer to look at

o color photographs

o black and white photographs

8. Which would you rather photograph?

o Flowers in a vase

o Trees in a forest

9. Which would you rather photograph?

o A basket of naughty fluffy kittens

o A group of your good friends

10. If you had to live in a tent at a one-month photography camp, would you choose to spend it at:

o A beach

o A national park

11. Would you prefer to take photographs and

o Stay in your neighborhood

o Travel to a different country

12.Is photography art?

o yes

o no

o sometimes

13. Would you like your photographs to end up in

o An album at home

o Published in a magazine

o Framed and hung in an art gallery

14. Do you like Ansel Adams Photographs

o Yes

o No

o Not sure

T h e E n d (

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