But nowadays you'd only have to do that work once; after that you could just turn the handle and crank out near-perfect copies. Ansel Adams had to perform his magic for every single print; there was no way for him to save an intermediate version.
On Thu, Mar 08, 2012 at 08:14:34PM -0500, Mark C wrote: > 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<p...@web-options.com> 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. > >>> > >> > >>-- > >>PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > >>PDML@pdml.net > >>http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > >>to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > >>follow the directions. > > > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
