“Ansel Easton Adams | Trailer Camp Children, Richmond, California.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/262589. Accessed 5 Sept. 2023.
Adams uses high contrast and deep lighting to emphasize certain parts of the image. He cleverly uses front-lighting to illuminate the faces of the children to draw the viewers’ eyes to the subjects’ expressions. With such harsh lighting, the extremely dark parts of the photo are ignored, making the children stand out even more against the solid black background. It is clear that Adams is trying to emphasize the emotion of the children, and pass that to the viewer. In addition, the front-lighting reflects much better off the subjects’ eyes. This makes them more noticeable, and invoke more emotion as the eyes tend to do.
What composition shape is created by connecting the light areas in the faces?