Ansel Adams' Clearing Winter Storm

[Drew Wiley]

Roger Minick did a famous snapshot of two old ladies, perhaps twins, standing at the edge of the parking lot staring out over the Valley, each identically dressed
wearing headscarves imprinted with that very scene. I once tweaked a spoof version of the scene, adding an aluminum ladder up the side of El Cap, along with a satellite dish on top, labeling it as Mt Winnebago. This was probably following one of those afternoons of sheer frustrations being stuck behind a motorhome on my way back from some east side backpack. I forget what I re-named Cathedral Rocks on the opposite side of the Valley. I'm obviously not fond of the Valley in summer. But once I retire, I'll likely sneak up there in winter more often. I'm still on my high from being high further up the Merced, with nobody else in sight,
my hiking partner excepted, who is nagging me to get at least one neg actually printed.

[h2oman]

The older I get, the more I seem to appreciate AA's carefully nuanced poetic choreography of light. I think a person has to be really immersed in the mountains
like I have been all my life to fully recognize this. I don't don't personally either emulate or avoid his style when encountering similar subject matter; I'm hardly a clone or Zone System junkie. If the shoe fits, I wear it; otherwise, something else applies. I wear neither a beard, bent nose, nor Stetson cowboy hat. But know-it-all clowns tend to ridicule AA because his technique and nominal subject matter are now seemingly easy and have became ubiquitous among a certain generation or two of outdoor photographers. Frankly, it doesn't matter how many people own pianos; not everyone can play with the same skill. You have to listen.

Agreed - I borrowed his "400 Photographs" (I have an assortment of other books of his photos) and found the number of really good photographs to be astounding. Perhaps even more than that, though, is the enjoyment I derive from reading his writing, particularly "40 Examples" and his autobiography. I don't know what kind of individual he really was, but he comes across as humble and with a delightful sense of humor, often self-deprecating.

[Bill_1856]

Agreed - I...found the number of really good photographs to be astounding. .

I disagree. Much as I love and admire his best work, I think that the number of his "really good photographs" to actually be quite low considering the years that he spent photographing in one of the most beautiful and powerful places on Earth. (A few Masterpieces, but mostly what Edward Weston called ANG pictures -- Ain't Nature Grand).

[Bruce Watson]

Agreed - I borrowed his "400 Photographs" (I have an assortment of other books of his photos) and found the number of really good photographs to be astounding.

Yes, this. Adams produced a large body of art. Enough to be able to create books like his Yosemite and the Range of Light. Of all the photography books I own, this is still my favorite. I still spend hours with it whenever I pull it out of the display case. Enthralling. This is the stuff that inspired me to pursue LF in the first place.

[Bruce Watson]

I disagree. Much as I love and admire his best work, I think that the number of his "really good photographs" to actually be quite low considering the years that he spent photographing in one of the most beautiful and powerful places on Earth. (A few Masterpieces, but mostly what Edward Weston called ANG pictures -- Ain't Nature Grand).

How many peppers did Weston photograph? Hint, it was well more than 30. That's only one really good photograph considering all the years he spend photographing veggies. Some of the others make you scratch your head and wonder what he was thinking.

The point I'm trying to make with tongue firmly in cheek, is that it's silly to try to guage an artist like this. Mozart composed effortlessly and prolifically. Beethoven had to really work for it. Brahms controlled how people like us discussed his legacy by burning a large quantity of his work (mostly early works) so we wouldn't know how many peppers he photographed before he created a masterpiece. Yet each composer created masterpieces and added to the collective works of music, each in their own way.

Photography is no different.

[Drew Wiley]

Certain things can be misleading. Much of AA's finest work has never been published, so people are unfamiliar with it. Second, most of his sales came from only
eight famous images, which were reproduced over and over again, either in the darkroom or published, or otherwise frequently reproduced. Yes, he was primarilya commercial photographer in terms of actual income, so did many things which might not hit a high note. But like I already suggested, you have to be immersed in the light of the high Sierra quite a bit yourself to appreciate his sensitivity to it. "Rocks n' trees", as his old LA critics dismissed it with a blanket genre, missed the point entirely. What has been quite interesting after returning from my latest trip is to compare the famous shots AA made at the same spot in the 1940's (two are reproduced in Range of Light), from the same scenes he did twenty years before in the distinctly pictorial style espoused by Mortensen, which he later renounced. All but one of those has apparently never been published. And it will be interesting to see how my own tweak on those same perspectives will come out, once I print them. I neither avoid nor mimic AA's influence. My own impression of Sierra light goes clear back to childhood, long
before I ever saw a single AA print. As for EW, he did quite a few stunning vegetables, some sliced in half. Don't confuse that fact with what merely hits the auction market.

[Tim Meisburger]

The image I find most impressive is Trailer Camp Children. Shot off the cuff with Dorothea Lange's Rolleiflex (as he was only shooting a view camera). He shot exactly one negative, and matched or exceeded "Migrant Mother" in impact and drama.

[Drew Wiley]

Them is fightin' words, Tim. Dorothea's work is considered the crown jewels of our local museum. I see one of her family members almost daily. But yeah, that
Trailer Camp shot is memorable.

[h2oman]

I disagree. Much as I love and admire his best work, I think that the number of his "really good photographs" to actually be quite low considering the years that he spent photographing in one of the most beautiful and powerful places on Earth. (A few Masterpieces, but mostly what Edward Weston called ANG pictures -- Ain't Nature Grand).

I'm not surprised at this response coming from you, Bill, and I respect it even if I disagree. We all have different tastes, and perhaps I'm just too intellectually or emotionally shallow to appreciate much of EW's work (since you bring him up) to the same extent that I enjoys AA's. One notion that should be dispensed of right now, though, is that it is easy to make a good photograph of a beautiful place. Much evidence to the contrary can be found.

[Bill_1856]

I didn't mean to imply that I don't like his work -- I certainly do, including many of his ANG images. I just wanted to point out that just because HE made it doesn't mean that it's automatically a Great Image.