Customer Reviews:
beautiful.......2007-07-22
I bought this book to give to my kids. My mother gave me one 20 years ago. Ansel Adams took portraits of my Great Grand Parents and put it in this book. I want my kids to have copies. If you are a photographer, there is a lot of info about how he took the pictures.
Beautyful and interesting book.......2007-06-26
Nice to be able to go back to basics in these times of megapixels and gigabytes.
A charming insight into the soul of a great photographer.......2007-04-27
There are many great books about photography, of which this is just one, but there are relatively few books about how to be a great photographer. On the latter topic this book is exceptional.
Ansel Adams was clearly both a gentleman and a gentle man, who lived to create great images for the pleasure and education of others. We are exceptionally lucky that he left us both his wonderful pictures, but also a few books which explain not only how, but also why some of them were created.
This book covers a photography career of over 60 years, taking 40 of his greatest pictures, and describing how they were made. Although much of the technical advice is still valid today, a lot of it requires on the fly translation from the language of large format cameras and glass plates to the world of digital SLRs, with tiny sensors and vast memory cards. That exercise might put some people off, but it makes you think harder about his advice, and that's a good thing.
However, where this book really scores is with the human stories of how and why Adams made certain pictures. Two examples stick in my mind.
Firstly, how one of his iconic views of Yosemite was made after a day's hard hiking with a full size view camera, large wooden tripod, and just twelve glass plates. He suspected that he had wasted the first eleven, and had just one left for a favourite view of Half Dome. He took extra care with that one, and the results are still thrilling 80 years on.
Then there's his tale of photographing 50s Californian farming families. This is a charming insight into how a great photographer of people develops both trust and ideas, lubricating both with an appropriate supply of beer. You suspect these days were not so hard for Adams as the great Yosemite hikes.
"Examples" also contains some remarkable philosophical insights into the process and role of photography. The one which now sticks foremost in my mind is that enthusiasm for a subject will not create great photographs - you have to visualise the image and its impact mentally, then make it. This is perhaps the single most powerful piece of advice in the book.
In 1935 Adams was concerned that the advent of 35mm would result in a vast number of bad photographs. Yet he was keen on the new medium, because he could also see its benefits. The same page could be written ten times over about digital photography, but you know that had Adams lived a little longer he would have been a keen PhotoShop-er.
This is a good book on photographic technique, but there are others. But there are few books which give such an insight into the soul of a great photographer.
Very educational and enjoyable.......2007-01-12
These days it is easy to do your own color printing, but, what makes a good print? I think I do, but am always looking for help in understanding ways of how to get there, how other people do it and how I could improve. Who could be a better example of a printer than A. Adams? No one, that's who. In this book he tells how he visualized the photo he wanted, and the print before he took the photo. And then his craft in printing it. He also talks about the circumstances around the making of the photo, location, time of day, camera, lens, film, exposure, etc. And all very lucid and enjoyable to read. His other book on printing is also good but in it he concentrates on the technical aspects of printing, i.e. developers, papers, burning and dodging, water baths, drying, mounting, etc.
An Essential Insight.......2006-05-24
Heralded as perhaps one of the most influential conservation photographers of all time, Ansel Adams for many has existed only as a name attached to brilliant, vibrant and expressive landscape photography. Perhaps if you have read his three-party series, "The Camera," "The Negative," and "The Print," you are familiar with Adams's technical thought processes. With "The Making of 40 Photographs," we gain insight into Adams' creative process. And for many of us who aspire to create brilliant nature photography, it is this insight that is most valuable.
"The Making of 40 Photographs" seeks to answer that question we all ask when we see a tremendous photographic print: How did the photographer take that photograph? But, "The Making" does far more than that. It seeks to explore not only the individual creative process, but the growth of the art form and the important historical transition of its wide acceptance as true art in his discussions of the f/64 Group.
As far back as 1980, Adams even goes so far as to predict digital photography as the next big step, referencing what he calls the "electronic image." This is a valuable insight, as many today challenge digital photography and question its detrimental impact on the photographic arts.
Any photographer who wishes to learn more about this master and explore his or her own potential to create brilliant images must read this book.
Customer Reviews:
Stunning black and white masterpiece.......1999-05-22
Published in 1979, Yosemite and the Range of Light is 116 impressive prints demonstrating the mastery of Ansel Adams. The book contains poster classics like "Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite Valley, 1944, Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley, 1960, and Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, 1944." Non students of Mr. Adams will discover many "unseen" photographs that are beautiful in their own right but did not have the mass-market appeal of his classics. Too valuable to be a coffee table book, this collection is the archetype for fine art books. My copy is a family treasure.
Book Description
Introduction by John Szarkowski Essay by James Alinder
In the last years of his life Ansel Adams selected the seventy-five images that he believed represented the finest examples of the quality and breadth of his artistic legacy. Those images he designated for exhibition throughout the country as "The Museum Set" and published in this essential volume:Classic Images.
Classic Images includes many of Adams' most famous and best-loved photographs and encompasses the full scope of his work: elegant details of nature, architectural studies, portraits, and the breathtaking landscapes for which he is revered. The latter range from his beloved Yosemite to the Pacific Coast, the Southwest, Alaska, Hawaii, and the Northwest. The portfolio is preceded by an eloquent introduction by John Szarkowski, former Director of the Department of Photography at New York's Museum of Modern Art. An authoritative biographical essay - and a detailed chronology - by James Alinder further establish Classic Images as required reading for a full understanding of Adams' development as a pre-eminent American artist.
Customer Reviews:
Gave it as a gift.......2005-08-17
I gave it as a gift to a friend of mine who loves nature photography. He loved it.
Nice Reproductions.......2004-06-17
Ansel Adams: Classic Images
This book provides high quality representations of Ansel Adams' photography in examples of 75 of his best images. The text, written by James Alinder along with a preface by John Szarkowski, portrays the story of Adams' life and his philosophy regarding art and existence. The text starts the reader off at his birth and takes you through Adams' childhood and the decisions he makes as he searches for an outlet for his creativity and a strong career path. Having also been a professional pianist, Adams' later discovers his passion for photography and nature, and spends the rest of his life a successful artist and activist.
This book takes you through major events in his life and references prints in the book to give visual examples of his ever-evolving photographic style. I would definitely recommend this book, if not as a successful biography, but as a stage for some beautiful, high quality reproductions of Adams' work.
A fantastic Collection.......2002-03-16
This collection can be seen at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, through July 7, 2002. This book is the catalogue of the exibition! If you like the book you should see the originals! They will blow you away.
An exquisite collection!.......2001-03-18
This is a wonderful book filled with breathtaking photographs taken by the late and well-respected Ansel Adams. Each of the photographs contained is a unique masterpiece with a life of its own. Looking at these splendid photographs, one feels drawn right in to the specific location and year. Some of my favorites include, "The Golden Gate Before the Bridge" (1932), "Barn, Cape Cod, Massachusetts" (ca. 1937), "Clearing Storm, Sonoma County Hills, California" (1951) and "Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona" (1942). This book will definitely hold your attention and keep you captivated if not mesmerized. With so many minute and beautiful details in these photographs, it's easy to see why Ansel Adams was one of the most respected and popular photographers of our time. He didn't just take a picture; he ceased moments in time and captured the beauty of the subjects being photographed. This is an excellent book that will make a fine addition to any library. This book would make a great gift for photographers and art connoisseurs alike!
Great Images Reproduced in Tiny Sizes Spoil The Effects.......2000-11-13
Ansel Adams was very concerned that his work always be reproduced in a high quality way. I fear that he gave too much attention to fidelity of reproduction, and not enough to size of image in the reproduction. This otherwise valuable book is seriously marred by the designer having chosen page and print sizes much too small for Adams' work. I suggest you avoid this book.
I would like to compliment James Alinder on an outstanding biographical essay concerning Adams' life and photographic techniques. This essay will add useful knowledge to anyone who wants to better understand Adams' work and life, and their effects on us all. I would also like to compliment the selection of the images. These are clearly among Adams' best work.
Adams' technique used the very stark light of dawn and dusk to create vivid detail that echoed across the image from figure to figure. The result was to help the eye capture the connectedness of nature, the oneness of creation. So when the details become too small, it is like rubbing out whole chapters in a book. I was very disappointed in the publishing decision for this book's page size. In fact, only one of my favorite images still held most of its power for me in these large postcard sizes, Moon with Half Dome, Yosemite, 1960.
Without Mr. Alinder's essay, I would have graded this book as a two star effort.
Some of the lesser works which have less fine detail still show well. Here were my favorites of this small-sized collection:
Self-Portrait, Monument Valley, Utah, 1958
Monlith, The Face of Half Dome, Yosemite, 1927
Winnowing Grain, Taos Pueblo, New Mexico, 1928
Rock and Grass, Moraine Lake, Sequoia National Park, 1982
Georgia O'Keefe and Orville Cox, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, 1937
Mormon Temple, Manti, Utah, 1948
Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico 1941
White House Ruin, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, 1942
Monument Valley, 1958
Cypress and Fog, Pebble Beach, California, 1967
Sand Dunes, Oceano, California, 1950
If you are like me and love Ansel Adams' work, I suggest you look into Ansel Adams, The American Wilderness, which does feature large enough reproductions.
Sometimes we learn more from mistakes than from successes. Where are your efforts being undertaken on too small a scale to be fully effective? What can you do to change that?
Enjoy the beauty of nature in its full scale brilliance (outdoors and in larger-sized photographic books)!
Customer Reviews:
A superb chronicle of a truly artistic life.......2007-10-02
This is one of the only books I have ever read where I limited myself to three pages of text a night; it was so good, I wanted to savor it as long as possible.
The photos speak for themselves; far beyond what words can express, some of these images capture the deepest truths about the American landscape.
Ansel is a good writer and a great thinker. His love for nature and music is profound, and reading of his many successful battles for the preservation of some of the world's finest places makes you just love the guy.
Whatever personal details may be missing are more than compensated for by the endless beauty within these pages. I would read three pages and then spend half an hour just falling into two or three photos. Adams' eye for light and composition and meaning is incomparable. These photos are sensual delights, with deep love attached.
Ansel also inspired me to spend serious time in Big Sur and Yosemite; for that I will always love him, and especially for his tireless work in protecting both of these most amazing of places.
What a special man.
If you can, get the first edition hardcover, it's well worth the extra bucks. The prints are as good as any fine art book you've ever seen. Later editions and the paperback are excellent, but are a step down from the first edition. You'll revisit this book many times and want to pass it on to your kids; get the best version you can.
Lots of Insight - What about his family?.......2007-04-09
As an aspiring photography this is a great read. I was unaware of all of the environmental works Adams performed and the struggles he endured to make photography a recognized art form. I found that the last page of most chapters provided some of the most insight from Adams, and perhaps the editor formed the back that way. Hearing his philosophies on life and the various people he admired and appreciated (Albert Bender) was enjoyable to read. What seemed to be a glaring omission, or maybe not, was discussion about his family. There is almost no mention of his children and I think no mention of his feelings for them or his wife. Maybe the intent of the book was to focus on photography.
Great bio, but one thing people should know........2007-01-10
Ansel Adams work is a treasure. I am a descendent of the original Indians of Yosemite and there is a problem. The defintion "Some of them are killers" for Yosemite was fabricated in 1978 and is not the original meaning of Yosemite. The real meaning was "The Killers" or "The Grizzlies" because the Miwoks were afraid of the Ahwahnees. It was Chief Bautista and Russio, who were helping the Mariposa Battalion, who coined that term "Yosemite" for the Indians in Yosemite Valley which they were afraid to enter. It is because the Miwoks were once enemies of Chief Tenaya and the Ahwahnees. 30 years Yosemite National Park Service hired a person named Craig Bates who was married to a Miwok woman and had a 1/2 Miwok son who created that new defintion. So it is increble that ONE person changed the meaning and defintion of one of the most important and well known parks in the whold world...and no one noticed.
Both enlightening and inspiring.......2005-11-29
While this book is about Ansel Adams, it is also about the struggle to make photography a recognized form of art. If you have any interest at all about the non-technical history of photography, I would highly recommend this book.
There is much more here than just the thoughts and ideas of one man. Each of the people that influenced Adams are described in detail, and in doing so, Adams provides a much needed background for the modern history of photography. Adams was fortunate enough to be able to work with a diverse and creative group of people at a time when the art world was expanding into new mediums. He worked with many now-famous photographers, painters, philanthropists, and institutions, and his experiences with them give the reader a very strong base from which to asses these very important ideas and movements. In reading this book, I was able to greatly improve the depth of my understanding of photography as art, as well as improve my understanding of the contributions of a number of other photographers. I was both inspired and encouraged by reading how much hard work and unending effort these photographers went through to ensure that photography would be recognized as an art form.
Another poster questioned whether Adams worked with the content of this book to cast himself in the best light. While this is quite possible, what is included does no so much focus on Ansel Adams the man as it does on his main goal in life, making photography a recognized art form. Everyone has personal issues to some degree, and I am sure that Ansel, being human, was no exception. But those problems are just that, personal, and would be tangental to what Ansel saw as the focus of his life. Everyone has faults so there is really no reason to enumerate them in print unless you are attempting to make yourself feel better by highlighting the faults of others.
I would strongly recommend this book for anyone who appreciates photography, history, and the arts, as well as those that would like to gain a better understanding of a very creative photographer. Of all the books about, or by, Ansel Adams that I have read, this is the one book that I would put at the top of the required reading list. It is also one of the best books about the modern history of photography I have read to date. I really cannot recommend it strongly enough.
Of Legends and Myths.......2002-02-05
Perhaps I missed the point. As anyone who reads a book about Ansel Adams, I am also a great fan of his work, and like many others too, a photographer with no claim to fame.
The amount of interesting information in this book regarding the life of Ansel Adams is wonderful. The people he knew, the places he's been, and the struggles he's undertaken are all part of a dazzling portrait of the man we do not know simply from looking at his work. It is a book which provides historicaly interesting snapshots from his life (literally, and figuratively), and lets us see glimpses of the lives of other great artists too.
What I found unpleasant was getting to know someone I may not have liked as a colleague or friend. The opinions or thoughts which flow from the pages of this this autobiographical are not always as polished as the photos we have come to know and love. In fairness, the man is not his work, and the work, likewise, is not who he is as a person. I have seen them both now, and prefer the work over the man (at least as he presented himself to me). I also thought that many of the events or persons which Adams spoke of where ALMOST done so by way of 'name dropping' in order to gain attention for himself (i.e. 'see who I know'). This was unnecasary I thought, and only made me wonder why he felt a need to do it that way, if indeed it was intentional.
I was particularly troubled by one of his closing observations on the value of photography as a fine art form, and how a photograph is, beyond all others, the most difficult form of art there is to create. I should think Michael Angelo, Monet, Picaso, or hundreds of other amazing artists through the ages may be inclined to a different viewpoint, even if they wouldn't admit to it.
Matt Lang
Average customer rating:
- The Ansel Adams Mystique
- Beautiful book
- The hardcover is good but the softcover is much better!
- A pioneer of photography and art
- A Picture is worth a million words
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Ansel Adams at 100
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ASIN: 082122865X |
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Ansel Adams at 100 celebrates the centenary of one of America's best-loved photographers. This superlative catalog of an exhibition organized by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presents the most dramatic and the most delicate of Adams's formal compositions, from spectacular mountainscapes to grasses on a pond, all reflecting his avowedly religious relationship to nature. Previously unpublished examples of Adams's early images show how he worked through the day, using changing light and different vantage points to interpret a subject. A fascinating comparison of his darkroom techniques is given in two printings of a 1948 negative of Mount McKinley, made in 1949 and 1978 to very different effects, one brooding and luminous, the other crisp and monumental. (The conventional wisdom is to prefer the earlier, but this reviewer loves them both.) The text by John Szarkowski, director emeritus of New York MoMA's photography department, gives biographical details and gracefully places Adams in the history of 20th-century photography and the conservation movement. Impeccable technical standards were a hallmark of Adams's work, and this book follows his tradition. Each black-and-white image is a tritone, meaning that it was printed from three different plates corresponding to different parts of the original photograph's gray scale, resulting in an extremely rich chromatic range. Light really does appear to glisten off a wet rock, and white aspens to glow. The images have been very carefully chosen, each page of a double spread complementing the other. The book's paper is custom-made, it is bound in linen and presented in a linen slipcase, and a complimentary facsimile of one of Adams's icons is included. The whole adds up to a most unusual and pleasing artifact: Ansel Adams at 100 consciously sets out to be the definitive study of a master, and it succeeds. --John Stevenson
Book Description
Ansel Adams at 100 celebrates the centenary of one of America's best-loved photographers. This superlative catalog of an exhibition organized by San Francisco Museum of Modern Art presents the most dramatic and the most delicate of Adams's formal compositions, from spectacular mountainscapes to grasses on a pond, all reflecting his avowedly religious relationship to nature. Previously unpublished examples of Adams's early images show how he worked through the day, using changing light and different vantage points to interpret a subject. A fascinating comparison of his darkroom techniques is given in two printings of a 1948 negative of Mount McKinley, made in 1949 and 1978 to very different effects, one brooding and luminous, the other crisp and monumental. (The conventional wisdom is to prefer the earlier, but this reviewer loves them both.) The text by John Szarkowski, director emeritus of New York MoMA's photography department, gives biographical details and gracefully places Adams in the history of 20th-century photography and the conservation movement. Impeccable technical standards were a hallmark of Adams's work, and this book follows his tradition. Each black-and-white image is a tritone, meaning that it was printed from three different plates corresponding to different parts of the original photograph's gray scale, resulting in an extremely rich chromatic range. Light really does appear to glisten off a wet rock, and white aspens to glow. The images have been very carefully chosen, each page of a double spread complementing the other. The book's paper is custom-made, it is bound in linen and presented in a linen slipcase, and a complimentary facsimile of one of Adams's icons is included. The whole adds up to a most unusual and pleasing artifact: Ansel Adams at 100 consciously sets out to be the definitive study of a master, and it succeeds. --John Stevenson
Customer Reviews:
The Ansel Adams Mystique.......2007-09-30
A number of years ago, I was perambulating through the local Barnes and Noble bookstore. Annie Leibovitz' book Women, which had just been released, was on display. A pair of college-aged girls (i.e., part of the target audience for the book) passed by and one commented to the other: "Oh, this looks interesting," and reached for the book. The other said, "I don't know, like, the only photographer I like is Ansel Adams." As the first girl thumbed through the book, the second reached for a volume of Adams' photos, as though to protest having to see another photographer's work.
I do not relate this anecdote in order to make a direct comparison between Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz. Their work really cannot be compared, as they are representative of two widely divergent genres. What I am getting at is this: The Ansel Adams mystique is overpowering enough to bypass not only reason, but also a cursory glance at other photographers.
Now, among photographers and art enthusiasts "in the know," this would not be an issue. However, for the general public, an almost impenetrable barrier -- rather much akin to the Berlin Wall -- has been erected. Take a poll of the American public. Ask them to name a well-known photographer. When about 90 per-cent of respondents instantly reply "Ansel Adams," wait just a moment. Then ask: "Can you name another?"
That "deer-in --the-headlights" expression that will suddenly come over their faces arises out of fear and embarrassment at being unable to recall the name of any other photographer out there.
It is as though Ansel Adams has sotto voce been billed as "the only photographer who ever lived." My mind returns to the bookstore incident and the pathetic attempt at debate the closed-minded girl tried to initiate. But, how can one debate, when one is totally unaware that there is another side out there? Or, if when made aware, ignores the evidence of her senses and acts as though there is no other side?
This essay is painful for me to write because when I first seriously pursued photography almost 20 years ago, I was deeply inspired by Adams' photographs. Moonrise, Hernandez to me is nothing if not sublime. It is true that -- to those touched by Adams' muse -- his photographs have the power to inspire, to move, to affect deeply.
It is because his images are so powerful that, for the novice or the dilettante, they can preclude the desire to look behind the horizons of Monument Valley or Yosemite. In fact, it is not a stretch to say that Adams' most ardent devotees comprise a cult following. Their monomania for the guy is akin to that of 1960s objectivists, followers of the philosopher Ayn Rand. Both Adams and Rand share a highly charged, stylised and absolutist way of viewing reality.
The Adams mystique is no accident: Since early on in his career, Adams hired a high-rolling public relations firm to market him as the greatest master of photography. Further, he held a deep and abiding personal resentment for photographers whose work he disliked or those he felt were nudging onto his territory.
Consider the strange case of pictorialist William Mortensen: For the f/64 Group, spearheaded by Adams and Museum of Modern Art curators Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, it was not enough merely to disagree philosophically with Mortensen. Granted, the pictorialist school had pretty much run its course, and purists in the mold of Adams and Edward Weston did indeed usher in an exciting new era in photography.
Had they respectfully disagreed, it would have been unlikely that Mortensen would have been forgotten and ignored so during his own lifetime and after his death, for he was something more than just another painterly salon photographer: Mortensen's compositions were steeped in Gothic and Romantic traditions, his subject matter often whimsical, often bizarre, his style a strange combination of Lorenzo de Bernini, Edgar Allan Poe, Man Ray, Salvador Dali and Maxfield Parrish.
In his essay, "Beyond Recall," photographer A.D. Coleman -- who is quite sympathetic to the Adams aesthetic -- presents a scathing indictment of Adams and the Newhalls, and their active campaign to completely shut out Mortensen from the elite artistic inner circles. Adams in particular launched a smear campaign to destroy Mortensen's reputation. He couldn't even bring himself to call him by his rightful name; in conversation, Adams called Mortensen "the Anti-Christ." Mortensen died a broken man.
Even after Mortensen's death, Adams tried to prevent Mortensen's work from being archived at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona. Fortunately for posterity, curator James Enyeart (who, though a friend of Adams) remained objective, and was instrumental in finding a permanent home for Mortensen's artistic legacy.
Because of Adams' spiteful behaviour, little remains of Mortensen's artistic output: Most of his negatives are missing, whereabouts unknown. He also left few notes or letters. No conclusions can be drawn, but it can be strongly inferred that by the time he died, Mortensen felt so irrelevant to the history of photography that he never bothered to leave much behind.
This almost total annihilation of the career and reputation of another photographic artist was carried out ruthlessly and consciously by a man revered by his followers as "Saint Ansel."
Let me go out on a limb here: Ansel Adams is dead. His work stands among the greats. But, he has become a caricature of himself in death as hangers-on exaggerate his importance by turning him into a sort of a demigod. Yet, this was done with his consent and wholehearted approval.
Strangely, Adams once penned the following:
In the past photography has been largely plagued by imitation, apology, and pompous defensiveness. The "salonist" continues the sham of the turn of the century. The photo-journalists (some, not all!) are "non-art" people, turning to the factual experiences of life as their anchor to reality. The advanced subjectivists reject the world and develop inner awareness -- of their inner beings....But there are, fortunately, a growing number of men and women who practice photography at a fully adult level.
Having winnowed down what defines "photography at a fully adult level" to a select few photographers who avoid such implied juvenile genres as pictorialism ("Salonists" need not apply) and photojournalism (most, not some successful enough to need Adams' cherished imprimatur!), Adams yet has enough gall to write:
The art of photography is the art of "seeing."....People are afraid to admit they "see" something all on their own. They are constantly making comparisons. This is a phenomenon of the Virtuoso Age; the few extraordinary craftsmen -- and sometimes creative artists -- stand clear and aloof, terrorizing the lesser gifted but nevertheless highly expressive individual. We need a return to the spirit of the madrigals, of the communal participation and joy of creating beauty in every form. True, "the perfect is the enemy of the good"; complete perfection can lead to total extinction. But the good has to be good.
That is on paper. In practice, we've already witnessed how Adams terrorized "the lesser gifted but highly expressive individual." But, let us do some "reading between the lines" here, for Adams is hardly making the case for artistic individualism; Far from it, he is making a pitch for artistic leveling.
Despite making the claim that "Most great photographers violate `pictorial rules,'" Adams prescribed a wholly regimented process of "pre-visualization," which -- when coupled with the pretzel-logic of "zone system" exposure -- actually makes for technically stunning, but aesthetically anemic, prints. (Can you imagine Robert Frank having shot The Americans employing the zone system?)
Both Adams and Weston the Elder created this rigid and stifling atmosphere for "keeping the tradition alive" with their Yosemite workshops. The workshop circuit is the Amway multi-level-marketing-pyramid of the art world. Unimaginative sycophants can learn how to photograph nature and employ the secrets of the Zone system in the kind of "communal participation" only the well-heeled can afford. These "madrigals" create carbon copies of Adams' masterpieces under the tutelage of Adams' aesthetic heirs.
The singular quality that strikes the viewer about Adams' work is simplicity; take a long look at Clearing Winter Storm. Adams' work at least had soul. "A return to the spirit of the madrigals, of the communal participation" instead becomes conformity, fawning and outright imitation, when people submerge all individuality in order to become the "next" Ansel Adams.
But, even that cannot be done: Of all the work I've seen of John Sexton, Jeff Nixon, Patrick Jablonski, Jeffrey Conley or Alan Ross at www.anseladams.com, all of it is technically marvelous. But, their work doesn't have that intangible genuineness (and in what Adams did, I don't question his sincerity to his subject matter). To me, they are just going through the motions. It is as though they "are afraid to admit they `see' something all on their own," to borrow a phrase.
The difference between Adams and his progeny is the same difference between spring water fresh from the well and distilled water; the former may have some minerals, and even the taste of rust and sulfur, but you know you're drinking something whole, despite its impurities. The latter is so pure that it's flavourless, without any character whatever. The perfect may be the enemy of the good, but at least the money's good.
By deifying Adams, his followers are actually making mockery of him in death, promoting the corpse of his work like Lenin's Tomb as envisioned by Charles Addams. By turning him into an icon, they have proscribed future iconoclasms.
The Ansel Adams centenary came and went recently with all the attendant hoopla and fanfare one would expect from his acolytes and disciples: PBS aired a hagiography, museums and galleries recycled his prints in commemorative exhibitions and Bulfinch released Ansel Adams at 100, a ridiculously oversized book, ceremoniously ensconced in its own protective linen slipcase. Strangely, the Sierra Club -- his old ecological haunt -- was silent about this excessive slaughter of precious trees.
Curiously, this very next year we now find ourselves at the tail end of the Walker Evans centennial. As he lived his life, so is Evans being celebrated in his death: Rather quietly. No media blitz. But there is a retrospective exhibit at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, curated by Alex Harris, who photographed the seminal work on Northern New Mexico life, Red, White and Blue, God Bless You.
Then again, take a look at those photographers (Harris included) who were influenced by Evans. From Diane Arbus, Robert Frank and Lee Friedlander, to Louis Faurer, Garry Winogrand and Wim Wenders, you will find a rather diverse lot who took Evans as a starting point and branched off in their own, unique, directions.
Because Evans was sui generis, and an individualist to boot, his "followers" were only such in the loosest sense of the term. Evans encouraged not proficient mimicry of his work, but kept an eye out for refined taste and an independent streak.
Consider even the work of William Christianberry, the one photographer who went out and mounted his tripod in the same rough hewn Alabama soil visited by Evans almost 40 years before: Christianberry's work is strictly homage; an almost purely social document, Christianberry made no pretence of overwhelming profundity, whether under the spell of Zone or Zen.
I wish that aspiring photographers' introduction to Ansel Adams be similar to that of a Japanese photography assistant I once employed. She had seen little of Adams' work prior my lending her Ansel Adams in Color. Her words regarding it were "he takes pleasant photographs of pretty subjects in nature." I later introduced her to Adams' black-and-white "greatest hits" that Little, Brown, also published. Her assessment: "His compositions are generally conventional, but not novel. But, with a red filter while shooting and many darkroom methods and formulas, he uses technique to bring drama to his prints."
Ditto. It was refreshing to hear this opinion of Adams, because my friend did not have the yoke of artistic correctness hanging about her neck to remind her to speak of Adams in reverent, hushed, tones. To her, he simply a very good artist and great technician. He ranks somewhat higher in my own estimation as a great artist and a peerless technician.
If understanding art in general, and photography in particular, is about seeing, then my friend saw -- unaided -- something in Ansel Adams' photography that eludes the eyes of so many here in the New World. What she saw was context.
She saw Ansel Adams' work for what it was, no more, no less. And, unaware of the bulk of legend built up around him during his own lifetime -- and especially since his passing -- my friend was more able than most to assess him objectively. Further, she was able to place Adams' work within its own genre, just as valid as and just as distinct from other genres. She considered his photographs at no more or less "fully adult level" of photography than Weegee, William Mortensen, Shoji Ueda, or Walker Evans. That is, she was "fully adult" enough not to buy into the alluring trap of buying wholesale into one school of thought at the expense of all others. Hers was a more sophisticated, eclectic, view that eschewed the easy dogmatism of the likes of Ansel Adams and his more rabid successors. I'm sure that if she met him today, she'd see him not as "Saint Ansel," but just plain "Mr. Adams."
This, I think, is the proper perspective necessary for an honest appraisal of Ansel Adams' oeuvre.
Beautiful book.......2007-06-24
This is a really beautiful book; everything from the cloth-lined box, the
paper, the printwork is a pleasure to hold and to view. It is hefty, well
made and feels like a book one should open with gloved hands, so as not
to spoil it.
John Szarkowski has written a short, but fine introduction to the life and
work of Ansel Adams, which I enjoyed much.
There are some 115 plates of photographs, some are quite small, as the
plates are scaled to the original size, many cover the full large format
page.
I am of two minds whether the small prints are better as they are, or
whether I would have enjoyed them more, blown up to the maximum size
allowed by the page.
I have seen most of these photos before, as I became aware of Adams's
photos in the eighties, and have obtained some other books of his.
Nevertheless, I do not regret having added this volume to my library.
The prints are better quality than the ones I already have.
The hardcover is good but the softcover is much better!.......2006-02-15
Hardcover - 3 stars
Softcover - 5 stars
I am a little dissapointed in the hardcover version. Some prints seem vague and a few with ink offset problems. Overall, the prints look quite low in contrast. I've seen AA's original prints, including the exact AA at 100 exhibit, and find the low contrast hard to accept. If you are interested in this book, the softcover version is a lot better, almost flawless - a true must-have for AA fans. Yes the print size is smaller than those in the hardcover, but the price is also smaller. It's interesting to notice that the softcover is printed in Germany while the hardcover I saw is in the US.
A pioneer of photography and art.......2004-08-18
Ansel Adams at 100 by John Szarkowski is a beautiful collection of Adam's finest work. The first fifth of this 191 page book contains a bibliography about Ansel Adams. I was able to read about the trials and tribulations of Adams' family issues, life, and his discovery of his passion for photography. It was in this book that I found out where Adams' passion began - Yosemite National Park. Though, after viewing the book, the audience would probably acknowledge that Adams had a secret love for Yosemite by the plentiful photographs of the historical national park.
This book reminds me of the beauty in nature. Adams took the simplest objects, "grass and water" and makes it into a work of art. The lighting, contrast, and angles makes simple objects shine. Also, the different photograph on each page harmonizes one another. I like the way Szarkowski strategically placed certain photographs together to enhance the effectiveness of the book. Furthermore, the quality of the photographs is remarkable. The photographs are amazingly crisp and each page appears to possess the quality of an original photograph. This is a great book for anyone who appreciates the beauty of nature.
A Picture is worth a million words.......2003-05-05
Adams work speaks for itself. He spend a lifetime documenting the beauty of the natural world and defined many of the standards that we now take for granted with regard to landscape and nature photograpy. Unfortunately, the curator of this show, John Szarkowki, is a long-winded blowhard who finds his own maundering art criticism much more interesting than, say, the biographical basics of Adams life or the numerous interesting conflicts and interactions he had with other of his peers and contemporaries. The pictures are lovely, of course, but you can learn a lot more about Adams' work and life through almost any other book, and for a lot less than [$$$].
Book Description
From 1948 to 1976 Ansel Adams produced seven portfolios, each a limited edition of 10 to 15 signed photographic prints. This book reproduces all 90 of these superb images, including many of Adamss most famous monumental landscape photographs and some remarkable, less familiar portraits and architectural studies. The Portfolios of Ansel Adams was first published in 1977. In 1981 it was decided to take advantage of new printing technology and also to have the book redesigned. In this new printing, the typography from the introductory texts of the original portfolios was faithfully reproduced. In addition, new laser-scanned separations were made of all the images to guarantee the best possible reproduction of the photographs. In his eloquent introduction, John Szarkowski observes that of all Adams publications, his portfolios most clearly represent his personal view of the meaning of his work.
Customer Reviews:
A great collection of images.......2005-11-23
This book is a compilation of images that Ansel compiled into portfolios, along with a brief introduction by the author. Some of these images can be found in other compilations, but are more powerful here because they are grouped as Ansel chose to group them. Each of his portfolios is well printed, for a book printing of a silver image that is, and his statement is included for each, just as in the actual editions. Overall, this is a nice compilation of images, and an opportunity to see them grouped as the photographer felt they should be. There are few enough words, with the major focus being on the main subject, his images. This is a great addition to the library of any Adams fan, but is not an indispensable tome.
excellent!.......2000-06-13
the zoom system is amazing! Ansel Adams is always great! i would buy it right now
Book Description
In his 1985 autobiography, Ansel Adams presented a life almost as neatly cropped and printed as his magnificent pictures. Here, Mary Street Alinder--who collaborated with Adams on his memoir and was his assistant in later life--is not reticent about the major emotional episodes in Adams's life, including his marriage and extramarital affairs, and his not-altogether-successful fatherhood. She explores the major artistic influences on his work and gives in-depth profiles of the significant figures in his circle. She also explains the technique and style Adams developed to obtain his unique vision, as well as his uneasiness at becoming a commodity. Ansel Adams: A Biography is an intimate and provocative portrait of the world's most famous photographer.
Customer Reviews:
An outstanding biography.......2003-04-13
Rarely do I start rereading a book immediately after I finish the last page, and it is even more rare for the book to be a biography. Mary Street Alinder's biography of Ansel Adams is one of these.
I have studied and admired Ansel Adams' photography for many years: his mastery of composition and virtuosity in the darkroom are unrivaled. His books on photographic and darkroom technique are well read and have a prominent place in my technical library. I did not know anything about Ansel Adams the man.
Mary Street Alinder was Adams' assistant during the final years of his life, becoming a close confidant and co-authoring his autobiography and later collecting and publishing his letters. In that unique position she had access to almost 70 years of correspondence, tens of thousands unprinted negatives, and more important of all close access to Ansel and his family.
The image of Adams that develops through the pages of the book is a difficult one to interpret. His friendships with other photographers, naturalists, and numerous female assistants were deep and life long (though in the case of the latter never intimate). His relationship to his family was a different matter, and this is where the difficulty lies: Ansel was first and foremost dedicated to, if not obsessed by, his art, at the expense of his wife and children. In this he comes through as less than likable. But it also becomes clear that inside Ansel was always a child, excited by all around him and exuberant with life and a single self-centered focus towards doing what he could for the places he loved.
Alinder's writing is clear and concise. The organization of the book is not strictly chronological. Instead each chapter documents specific events, people, places, or photographs. This can be disconcerting at first, but it is an effective approach that leads to a more interesting read. Chapter 13, "Moonrise," is especially fascinating. It is Alinder's favorite picture, and she was fortunate enough to be in the darkroom with him as he made a print from the original negative. The description of Ansel's process is musical.
Alinder is not an apologist for Ansel's personality flaws: she presents him honestly, though not critically. The book is rife with citations: there are over 60 pages of notes supporting the story.
If you want insight into Ansel Adams the Photographer, the Naturalist, and most importantly, the Man, then I highly recommend this book.
A nice book...I just discovered I don't care much for Adams!.......2003-03-24
The book is interesting and quite well written, if you don't mind the non-chronology of it. I just came away thinking even less of Mr. Adams than I did going in and that was a let-down for me. I think some of his photographs are very pretty, but I would never call them art! They don't "move" me and neither did this book.
simplicty and thought.......1999-09-05
I thought it was very interesting it was of thought and simplicity it had lots of interseting perspectives about one's own life....
The real AA.......1999-04-11
Alinder has written a superb book, which for the first time, gives us the real Ansel Adams.
And here on the printed page we find what has been whispered about for decades: Ansel wasn't exactly a nice guy. Poor Virginia (his wife who tolerated his infidelity); poor Michael and Anne (his kids who rarely saw him).
Adams joins the ranks of Weston and Stieglitz, who we've also learned were not saints at all. Not even very nice people. But exceptionally gifted artists nonetheless.
Comprehensive biography, describing the real Ansel Adams.......1998-04-10
With the many monographs, existing biographies and the letters already published Mary Street Alinder provides an insight into the "real" Ansel Adams. Without destroying the legend, his life is shown as imperfect, human. This is the complete Adams, the great image-maker, the technical genius, environmentalist, pianist, social figure, but also alluding to a less than perfect personal life. Alinders' position as assistant has allowed her a unique perspective of the world's best-known photographer, the result is a book that is well-structured and entertaining to read. It shows where Adams fits into the greater picture, his associations with other photographers, figures in the art world and his political as well as social connections. The only weakness is the fully justified attack on the trustees of the Ansel Adams legacy; this may not be the place for such personal comments. Ansel Adams: A Biography is an excellent book, whether you think you know about Adams or have never heard of the great man.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing.......2001-07-09
This is an amazing book with quotes and images.
Average customer rating:
- Superlative Biography
- An excellent biography
- In search of the landscape as essential...
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Ansel Adams and the American Landscape: A Biography
Jonathan Spaulding
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Adams, Ansel
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Ansel Adams: An Autobiography
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Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs
ASIN: 0520089928 |
Book Description
Working with a cumbersome 8 x 10 field camera, Ansel Adams (1902-1984) created some of the most dramatic and influential photographs ever made of the American West. His majestic landscapes and evocative still lifes conveyed a vision of an idealized America that helped inspire the wilderness conservation movement. Yet despite these accomplishments, Adams has been the least studied of our most important photographers. Now Jonathan Spaulding provides the first full biography of the artist and a critical analysis of his life's work.
Refuting the myth of a solitary and carefree wilderness explorer, Spaulding portrays a man grappling with the question of how art and nature intersect in the modern world. He addresses the contradictions the photographer faced as both artist and activist: his struggle to balance art and commercialism; his desire to create art, yet enjoy bourgeois comforts; his simultaneous support for economic development, tourism, and wilderness preservation.
Spaulding places Adams's work in the context of modernism and the other major developments in twentieth-century art and ideas. He examines his debt to the pioneering art photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Steichen, and his response to later artists. He traces Adams's growth as an environmental activist and discusses his use of photography to further the cause of conservation.
Questions regarding the meaning and place of wilderness in modern culture remain with us today. By analyzing these issues through Adams's life and work, this book is a telling portrait of one of the century's greatest photographers and a reflection of our changing attitudes about the natural world.
Customer Reviews:
Superlative Biography.......2004-02-12
Ansel Adams and the American Landscape: A Biography by Jonathan Spaulding is a superlative biography of one of America's true icons. Spaulding does a magnificent job describing the evolution of Adams as a photographer, environmentalist and individual. In this, the book is more than just Adams' biography, but a history of the environmental movement and photography in America.
The only significant disappointment was the inability of Spaulding to utilize the actual Adams pictures when describing their creation. For instance, his description of the creation of Moon over Hernandez would have greatly benefitted from the ability of the reader to actually see the picture. However, unfortunately he was unable to obtain permission to utilize the photographs. While this is not Spaldings fault, it does limit the impact the of the narrative.
The most interesting part of the book was the evolution of 20th Century American photography. Adams cannot be separated from the development of photography in American and his life touched most of the great American photographers. Adams was constantly in conflict with many of them over the issue of quality versus the benefits of photojournalism. Adams saw photography as a high art form and was at odds with those who saw it as more as a story telling devise.
For those that are interested in Adams, environmentalism or photography this book is a must.
An excellent biography.......2003-05-04
Jonathan Spaulding's biography of Ansel Adams (or AA as people referred to him) provides a counterpoint to Mary Street Alinder's. While Alinder shows us Adams the Man first, with the influence of the American West and the Environmental Movement in a supporting role, these forces are prominent in Spaulding's work.
This is not to say that Spaulding does not talk about AA's private life, a pre-requisite for any biography, but does so only as it relates to AA's pursuit of photography and environmental causes. Absent, for example, are details of his relationship with his wife Virginia (which was quite complex: someone needs to write a biography of Virgina Best Adams in a way that Stacy Schiff wrote of Vera Nabokov) and the hard relationship with his children.
What Spaulding gives us instead is a very detailed account of the evolution of Adams' photographic vision and technique, and the influence of the American West on it. Through this you find his relationship to other important photographers and their influence on him and his styles: Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Weston, Dorothea Lange, and many others. We also see the influence of Western expansion throughout the first half of the 20th century, especially after WWII. In particular the seeming incongruity of AA producing pictures drawing people to the Western national parks while campaigning with the Sierra Club to limit the impact of tourists on Nature is discussed. The battle, falling out, and eventual reconciliation between Adams and David Brower is also detailed
If you are most interested in AA's life, read his autobiography or Alinder's biographry. If you want to know more about his influences and those things that he influenced, Spaulding's book is an excellent and readable choice. The book is heavily footnoted, with over 80 pages of notes, and contains a useful bibliography for anyone wishing to research further Adams' very interesting life.
As a footnote, the book does not include any pictures whose copyright is held by the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, which refused to grant permission.
In search of the landscape as essential..........1999-12-27
This biography offers its readers a wide range of suggestions and examples how American landscape entered into the American cultural essence as an icon, a point of reference. Obvious that photographers could inhale deeper this magic: great prairies, majestic spaces of woods and water, and so on. Adams fought all his life for this searching, his adventure followed this last century, expecially for what's "preservation of nature and animals/plants nature contains". Thank you, Adams, from one among million walkers and photographers! Fred T. from Turin, Italy.
Average customer rating:
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Ansel Adams: New Light : Essays on His Legacy and Legend (Untitled)
Manufacturer: Friends of Photography Bookstore
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Adams, Ansel
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ASIN: 0933286619 |
Books:
- Eye of the Beholder
- Fish! A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
- For Women Only: What You Need to Know about the Inner Lives of Men
- Getting in the Gap: Making Conscious Contact with God Through Meditation (Book with CD)
- Ghosts in the Wilderness: Abandoned America
- Harbors and High Seas, 3rd Edition : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, Third Edition
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)
- Henri Cartier-Bresson (Aperture Masters of Photography)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
- History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- History: Fiction or Science
- A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America
- The Jew in the Lotus: A Poet's Re-Discovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India
- The Life of the Bee
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- Adsorption by Powders and Porous Solids: Principles, Methodology and Applications
- Weapons Grade: How Modern Warfare Gave Birth to Our High-Tech World
- English Bookbinding Styles 1450 - 1800: A Handbook
- The Castle in the Forest: A Novel
- How Come, I'm Still Here
The Camera (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 1)
The Negative (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 2)
The Print (Ansel Adams Photography, Book 3)
The Ansel Adams Guide: Basic Techniques of Photography - Book 1 (Ansel Adams's Guide to the Basic Techniques of Photography)
The Ansel Adams Guide : Basic Techniques of Photography - Book 2
