It all started with Ansel Adams. Or did it? The concept of visualization, or pre-visualization, is discussed by Edward Weston in 1921 when he states, “Get your lighting and exposure correct at the start and both developing and printing can be practically automatic.” Adams describes his first visualization of the final print, in 1927, when he placed a red filter over his lens to darken the sky when he photographed Half Dome; the resulting print being the famous “Monolith, The Face of Half Dome”. His definition of visualization was published in Modern Photography, 1934-35: The Studio Annual of Camera Art:
The camera makes an image-record of the object before it. It records the subject in terms of the optical properties of the lens, and the chemical and physical properties of the negative and print. The control of that record lies in the selection by the photographer and in his understanding of the photographic processes at his command. The photographer visualizes his conception of the subject as presented in the final print. He achieves the expression of his visualization through his technique—aesthetic, intellectual, and mechanical.
In his Autobiography, Adams further explains
Visualization is not simply choosing the best filter. To be fully achieved it does require a good understanding of both the craft and aesthetics of photography…The visualization of a photograph involves the intuitive search for meaning, shape, form, texture, and the projection of the image-format on the subject. The image forms in the mind–is visualized–and another part of the mind calculates the physical processes involved in determining the exposure and development of the image of the negative and anticipates the qualities of the final print. The creative artist is constantly roving the worlds without, and creating new worlds within.
Edward Weston is generally credited, though, with the term pre-visualization in an essay written in 1932 and, given my current research, might be considered the “Father of the Publicized Concept of Visualization”, if such a title should be bestowed on anyone, because his 1921 statement is the earliest reference I can find. In 1933, Adams explained his concept of visualization to Alfred Stieglitz, who replied with his own definition of creative photography:
I have a desire to photograph. I go out with my camera. I come across something that excites me emotionally, spiritually, aesthetically. I see the photograph in my mind’s eye and I compose and expose the negative. I give you the print as the equivalent of what I saw and felt.
This quote by Stieglitz is very similar to Weston’s 1930 quote
I can, and have taught a child of seven to expose, develop, and print creditably in a few weeks, thanks to the great manufacturers who have so simplified and made fool-proof the various steps in picture making: which accounts for the flood of bad photography by those who think it is an easy way to “express” themselves. But it is not easy! - not easy to see on the ground glass the finished print, to mentally carry that image on through the various processes of finishing to a final result, and with reasonable surety that the result will be exactly what one originally saw and felt.
I’m not saying Stieglitz, or anyone, copied or re-worded concepts already defined by others. The early 30s was an active time of discovery and innovation in photography and many of the leading photographers of that era were “on the same page” as it were. But, in my opinion the meaning of these terms (visualization, pre-visualization, equivalent), that the photographer selects an exposure based on a prior intent and appearance of the final print rather than creating the work after the exposure, are the same and are interchangeable in that context. Much later, pre-visualization did take on a similar, but different, meaning.
What about earlier photographers such as Eugene Atget, whose photographs from the late 1800s are described by others as having been pre-visualized? Or Edward Curtis and his iconic photographs of Native American Indians? Or even Louis Daguerre? Did these photographers not have any idea or forethought of how their final images were to look as prints? I find that hard to believe. Adams never claimed any ownership to the concept of visualization and pointed out there wasn’t anything secret or magical about the process. In my opinion, I think photographers like Atget and Curtis understood the need to visualize the finished product, but it was such an integral part of the photographic process at the time (and who else at that time besides other photographers would understand?) they didn’t need to try and teach that understanding to other photographers or the general public. Perhaps Adams and Weston were just the only ones to discuss the concept in the permanent record of the printed page when photography became more readily available to the public and the need arose to instruct others how it was done (to preserve the art of straight photography?). History favors those who make permanent records of their activities.
Pre-visualization, I believe, is used to refer more to commercial photography than to art photography, and started probably around the 1950s or later. With pre-visualization, photographers imagine a scenario or it’s told or shown to them via storyboard or sketch by a client and the photographer then endeavors to replicate the parameters in nature or, typically, in a controlled studio environment.
Pre-visualization can be a negative barrier to the art/landscape/travel photographer. Pre-visualization to this group of photographers might be a set of expectations regarding weather conditions, access to subjects, etc. When pre-formed expectations are not met by existing conditions (rain instead of sunshine, or the medieval cathedral is under renovation and surrounded by scaffolding, for example) it can be a frustration leading to the shutting down of awareness and receptivity, thus blocking the photographer’s ability to photograph or even be aware of other opportunities. A photographer acquaintance once remarked how a trip to Australia was a “waste” because the conditions were not as he expected them (pre-visualized) so there “was nothing to shoot.”
Post-visualization is a concept pioneered by photomontage photographer Jerry Uelsmann in 1967 as a response to the rigid requirements laid out by the “straight” photographers such as Adams. Post-visualization encourages photographers to re-visualize the final image at any point in the photographic process; it’s the creative process that’s important, not adherence to a particular notion of beauty, realism, or process used to reach a final image. Uelsmann found the visualization concept promoted by Ansel Adams to be restrictive and impractical but agreed the quality of work Adams, Weston, Stieglitz, and others produced set the standard for future photographers to aspire to. However, I believe even the post-visualists need to look ahead, however near or far in the creative process, to eventually envision a final image and engage the knowledge, skill, and technology to reach that final result.
Arriving on the heels of the digital age is a new application of post-visualization among the masses. It is the “fix it in post” or “fix it in Photoshop” mentality of creating photographs. A plethora of one-button tools exist allowing the digital photographer to create infinite variations literally without thinking. The ‘machine-gun approach’ lamented by Ansel Adams is now the normal operating procedure for many digital photographers. This concept of post-visualization makes an erroneous assumption that because it is digital anything can be fixed, added, removed and improved, when it is still easier to get the majority of work done in-camera. The mantra of the “old masters” still applies; get the lighting and exposure correct in the camera and the rest almost takes care of itself.
Technology will no doubt eventually prove that final statement wrong, but regardless of the process employed or aesthetic ascribed to, it will always be the photographer’s eye, emotion, planning, and vision that creates the photograph attracting the viewer’s eye. Digital technology today offers a huge range of options, more than were available to film photographers. For best results, the principle of visualization and post-visualization described by Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Jerry Uelsmann (and many, many, others) still applies: know your equipment and the options technology offers, understand and be able to engage the processes involved to reach the final result, and create the print that most appeals to you (or whatever end product it might be).
