Pictures of Ansel Adams in his darkroom?

[Bill T.]

Hello, I'm helping out on a photo related documentary film. I am looking for pictures of Ansel Adams working in his darkroom. Additionally, any pictures of the Adams Carmel house or the darkroom even without Ansel would be very useful.

We already have the Arnold Newman shot of Adams outside the glass doors, wearing a lab apron. Would appreciate any all leads on other shots. And in the best of all possible worlds, someone out there would come forward with a never-before-seen shot! This is far from a big budget operation, but we would be happy to pay a fee for the usage of such a shot.

It's interesting that there is such a dearth of this type of imagery considering all the young photographer-wannabees who passed through those doors.

Thanks!

Bill T.
www.unit16.net

[David Karp]

Good sources would be to contact former assistants and colleagues, like Alan Ross, John Sexton, Ted Orland, Chris Ranier, and Mary Alinder. Another would be to contact the Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite.

[David Karp]

And perhaps another would be the University of Arizona, which has all of AA's negs.

[Bill T.]

Thanks David, We'll be following up on those tips in the coming weeks as we start looking for oral commentary. We've been trying to scare up some new material, so if any of you should come across any interesting Ansel shots on those old Nikon-F or 6x6 rolls or whatever, please let me know!

We need at bare minimum 200+ good documentary shots to support the section on Adams, we've got a long way to go! We've got a fair number of outdoor shots especially from the Yosemite workshops, but pictures of Ansel at work in the darkroom or studio are pretty sparse.

[David A. Goldfarb]

Alas, lighting conditions in the darkroom don't usually make for very good photographs, so such shots are pretty much always staged.

[Bill T.]

Alas, lighting conditions in the darkroom don't usually make for very good photographs, so such shots are pretty much always staged.

Staged shots are just fine. They challenge the subject to summarize themselves, which if recognized is more informative of the inner person than a merely factual shot. Think of the faked darkroom scenes in the George Hurrell documentary, he was definitely trying to say something about himself.

[John Kasaian]

If you want to fake a shot, just get a pure black print and caption it "Ansel Adams loading film holders"---199 more to go!

[Merg Ross]

His autobiography published in 1985 has two photos of him in the darkroom; the first in 1930 and again in 1983.

[Robert Hughes]

How about any pictures of him nude in his darkroom?

[Alan Davenport]

How about any pictures of him nude in his darkroom?

Is that supposed to be a Large Format joke?