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While technically proficient, as one expects from Ansel Adams, these images don't have the same feel or impact one gets from his classic landscape images. Looki

While technically proficient, as one expects from Ansel Adams, these images don't have the same feel or impact one gets from his classic landscape images. Looking closely at them, I wouldn't necessarily be able to attribute them to Adams in many cases if I didn't already know they were his. In contrast, when you see one of his Sierra Nevada images or photographs of the National Parks, you know immediately that they could only have been his. I have to wonder if he treated this assignment casually, as a means to make some money, as opposed to making art. It may also show an Ansel Adams operating outside his wheelhouse, applying his eye and skills but being a bit uncomfortable with the genre. In either case, I wouldn't mind being able to hang these on my wall.

dan-robertson 8y ago
The article notes that he wasn’t very impressed with them and that he felt he hadn’t ever gotten the right weather for photographs. The main problem was likely that he didn’t have enough time to get the photos he wanted.
saltcured 8y ago
Some of his best landscape prints took years to produce. His photography is not about serendipitous "found" imaging, nor documenting a scene you were likely to see with your own eyes. Those romantic and dramatic landscapes existed in his mind, and I really mean he produced the images. He used the wilderness and environment like set pieces for studio work, and also manipulated the exposures and printing quite a bit to get some of the dramatic lighting. His technical skill was only one part of what made his art. His patience and deep familiarity with the land was also essential. He traveled the same areas repeatedly, imagined a composition, and returned later to get the season, weather, and light the way he wanted. Many return visits were not as fruitful as hoped, since nature doesn't have a reservation system. These urban photos seem more journalistic in nature. Not only was his time compressed for the work, the nature of the subject lacks the permanence to pre-visualize a composition and return to capture it at a more ideal time.
- sizzzzlerz 8y ago
  It is well known that much of the impact those images make on people is due, in large part, to the time he spent making prints from the negatives. He was a master at that. I like you term, "journalistic", in referring to this work. That is concept I was thinking about but the word didn't come to me at that time.

dan-robertson 8y ago

The article notes that he wasn’t very impressed with them and that he felt he hadn’t ever gotten the right weather for photographs. The main problem was likely that he didn’t have enough time to get the photos he wanted.

saltcured 8y ago

Some of his best landscape prints took years to produce. His photography is not about serendipitous "found" imaging, nor documenting a scene you were likely to see with your own eyes. Those romantic and dramatic landscapes existed in his mind, and I really mean he produced the images. He used the wilderness and environment like set pieces for studio work, and also manipulated the exposures and printing quite a bit to get some of the dramatic lighting. His technical skill was only one part of what made his art. His patience and deep familiarity with the land was also essential. He traveled the same areas repeatedly, imagined a composition, and returned later to get the season, weather, and light the way he wanted. Many return visits were not as fruitful as hoped, since nature doesn't have a reservation system. These urban photos seem more journalistic in nature. Not only was his time compressed for the work, the nature of the subject lacks the permanence to pre-visualize a composition and return to capture it at a more ideal time.

sizzzzlerz 8y ago
It is well known that much of the impact those images make on people is due, in large part, to the time he spent making prints from the negatives. He was a master at that. I like you term, "journalistic", in referring to this work. That is concept I was thinking about but the word didn't come to me at that time.