Paul Stenquist wrote: >I like the Ansel quote. And I think his processing work is perhaps more than >20 of his production, if one considers only that which gives value to the >photograph. Studying the notational maps he made to describe his burning and >dodging procedure, one can only conclude that he was painting with his hands, >his masks and his pass-through shapes. To that add his coupled >exposure/development technique. IMO, it's a higher art form than merely >observing, framing and tripping the shutter. It's not for everyone, but >minimalizing its worth diminishes only the critic. >Paul
A while ago I was browsing through a copy of National Geographic. I'd noticed a reference to Ansel Adams on the cover but didn't think much of it. I leafed through the magazine from back to front, as one often does when casually browsing, and came across a series of very well done black & white shots that were the subject of the article in question. All the trademark characteristics of Ansel Adams were there, the deep blacks, brilliant whites and gorgeously rendered tonality, but as I looked through the images I found myself slightly disappointed at the images. I assumed that they'd just gone mining deep into Adams's catalog looking for images that hadn't been seen very often and come up with his second or third rate shots. The compositions just didn't quite hit the mark and there were some cluttered foregrounds or backgrounds that were just a bit busier than would be optimum. Of course when I came to the first page of the article it turned out to be another of those "following in the footsteps of Ansel Adams" or "inspired by Ansel Adams" or (the kiss of death) "the next Ansel Adams". Technically well-executed shots and certainly not bad work. Thoroughly NatGeo worthy - I'd be proud to have done any one of them. But not Andel Adams. Because of his technical brilliance Ansel Adams gets underestimated as an artist by a lot of photographers. His reputation was a photographer would probably be better if he hadn't been such a good printer. -- Mark Roberts - Photography & Multimedia www.robertstech.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
