Ansel Adams is a favourite american photographer of mine, I've only ever seen landscape photographs from him, his black and white images the best ones. Many of his images are taken of Western North America, like Yosemite National Park, which work as he took his shots with large-format cameras so that he could achieve clarity and sharpness; I think this was worth the cost and effort to take the pictures.
He was a environmentalist as well as a photographer which is why I think the landscape photography is the majority of his work. Apparently at a young age he began developing an interest in nature, having an eidetic memory gives me the impression that his was able to retain almost every shred of inspiration which is why his work consists of so much feeling and obviously has the effort and drive to achieve such high level of photography.
I really like the way he portraits nature using the light and natural shapes. He achieves such a great balance in his work, the compositions work so well with the exposures.'Tetons and the Snake River' is a great example. The areas in the image have been carefully exposed to make sure the shape of the scenery like the mountains have been emphasised by the clouds behind them etc. this is a good example of the Zone System. A system for determining optimal film exposure and development.
I personally take more landscape photographs than anything else so I really appreciate and admire the way he works. He formulated the Zone System with Fred Archer and also founded the Group f/64.
Tetons and the Snake River, 1942,
16" x 20", gelatin silver photograph
Link to more of his work:
http://www.anseladams.com/category_s/71.htm
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