As I am researching for a long-term project I have been viewing historic work by many artists at the incredible Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA. The curator of photography recommended that I look at some of the early work of Ansel Adams as I try to finalize the process that I will use to create the final prints of this long term project.
Yesterday I was able to spend a couple of hours privately viewing Ansel's Parmelian Prints of the High Sierra that were gelatin silver prints produced as a portfolio in 1927. (More at
http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicar...are_parme.html)
I will be the first to say that I am not a huge fan in general of Ansel Adams. I greatly respect his vision and what he accomplished in his craft and I do enjoy seeing his work from time to time. I do also very much an appreciate the intense approach to crafting an incredible image through his process and technique.
The images from this series were printed on a light, thin paper and the image seemed to sit on top of the paper in a very pleasing manner. The paper has a very light yellow/brown tone though I'm not sure if the paper was originally like this or if it came from age.
You could see Ansel's perspective even in this very early work. The series was almost entirely sharp and extremely detailed with the exception of one pictorial style more soft and glowing style image. This struck me as odd in such a cohesive series.
What I most appreciated in this work was the art of the print. None of these were large yet they retained incredible detail. Ansel certainly had no issue allowing some of the whites to go completely white. But in the dark tones there was only one or two images where he chose to go to complete, detail-less black on an image. The dodging and burning was tastefully done without the heavy-handed halos so often seen in lesser works.
Overall it was a very educational and enjoyable experience as I continue to feed my head with approaches, ideas and quality work. Next week, very early Weston works to view. I do love this stuff.
Tim
www.ScottPhoto.co
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