Yes - his darkroom work was definitely more than 20% of his product - my
attempt to work in Woody Allen's famous "80% of life..." quote missed
the mark.
I was one observing some fine Ansel Adam's prints at the Chicago Art
Institute several years ago and overheard a guy say "Wouldn't it be
great to have some of his negatives? You could just crank out the prints
and make a fortune." Economics aside (the value of mass produced prints
would diminish with each copy) the idea that the negative could be
reproduced like a piece of paper in a copier was pretty idiotic as well,
given how much work Ansel put into his printing.
MCC
On 3/6/2012 8:14 PM, 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
On Mar 6, 2012, at 7:59 PM, Mark C wrote:
I think about the Ansel quote as about manipulation - for most of his day that
would have been filters, development (zone system), and darkroom printing.
That's not everything but probably 20% of it. The other 80% is showing up in
Yosemite.
But that's not a photo quote...
On 3/6/2012 3:19 PM, Bruce Walker wrote:
On Tue, Mar 6, 2012 at 3:09 PM, Bob W<[email protected]> wrote:
My favourite is "Photography is about noticing things", by Elliot Erwitt.
The one I hate most of all is> • “You don’t take a photograph, you
make it.” - Ansel Adams
Pretentious bollocks and does nothing to help anyone take a better photograph.
I understand your annoyance with it, but I don't mind it so much. To
me it suggests that once you realize that it takes planning, practice
and active participation to get successful images, then your
photography will start improving seriously. As opposed to that
mindless drive-by point and click that so many tourists are observed
doing.
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