I don't think there is any question that if Ansel Adams were still alive that he would have embraced digital. But I think he would have been drawn to producing large inkjet negatives for contact printing on traditional silver papers (what today is called "hybrid" photography). The dodging and burning he used to do on the paper, would be done in post-processing of the digital file to produce the best inkjet digital negative. In today's resurgence of interest in film photography, and even large format film photography, he would probably be a huge workshop presenter - doing a lot of the traditional things he has always done.
In the dedication of his Portfolio VII, written in May of 1976, he said the following: "I am both pleased and honored to have worked through more than half a century in the world of photography, and to have observed its ever-expanding potential as a medium of expression and communication. The original Polaroid Land print in this portfolio represents for me a voyage into the future. New aspects of seeing, new means of communication, new qualities of image and new levels of subjective and intellectual comprehension lie ahead. While I have always worked with fairly conventional means and techniques, I anticipate new departures which, if I cannot examine them in my lifetime, will assure the power of future vision and accomplishment." On Wed, Apr 17, 2013 at 8:31 PM, Joseph McAllister <[email protected]> wrote: > All transparencies. But anything that was printed was first exposed to a > pre-fogged sheet of color neg, or, using special color neg material from > Kodak. The pre-fogging worked better. > > I was tasked with making prints from 35mm color Kodachrome and Ektachrome > slides that Weston's sons brought into the lab where I worked nights while > attending college, Jones Photocolor. I didn't do them all, but I was taught > by the owner how to use the enlarger to pre-fog a sheet of 5x7 neg material > before I placed the carrier with the slide in. Once those 5x7 sheets were > processed and checked, they were placed in either our 5x7 Elmer vertical > enlarger for up to 20x24 prints or our custom horizontal (on rails in a large > room) enlarger for the 40x60 prints for museums or shows. > > In some cases, we exposed transparency film for airport backlit billboards > for Wells Fargo and a few airlines. 45" wide by 30' long film tacked up to > the wall in the dark using taped on plastic guides, one sheet at a time. That > was all we could process at a time on our Holtzmueller drum processor. It had > to be accurate enough and properly replenished so each roll matched exactly > once they were hung. Someone else did the trimming and edge reinforcements > for display. > > More fun! > > > On Apr 16, 2013, at 13:41 , John Sessoms wrote: > >> Perhaps even more so, as I'm pretty sure most of his color photography was >> made with Kodachrome. Anyone know of work Adams did with color negative >> film? >> >> I don't, but if there is, I'd appreciate a link. > > > > Joseph McAllister > Too much gear, not much time > > > > > > > -- > 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. -- "Photography is a Bastard left by Science on the Doorstep of Art" - Peter Galassi -- 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.
