What were Weston and Adam's darkroom like?

[Allen in Montreal]

..........

I figure Ansel Adams probably had the best of everything. What kinds of sinks did he have and how many linear feet long were they?............)

I have been in Adams darkroom, much of it was home made.
What left the biggest impression on me was, here was a man who, at the later stages of his life, could have had the "very best", the "very newest".

He did have the very best.....in a home made and very pragmatic sort of way.
When you digest the set up, it was all about functionality within his work methods.

The sort of darkroom where, at first glance, you say...."Why?"
at second glance you say...."bloody brilliant!"

[Keith S. Walklet]

Ansel had darkrooms in both Yosemite and Carmel. The one in Yosemite is attached to the classroom/computer lab where the AA workshops are held and folks like Kerik, Alan Ross, Vaughn, Ray McSaveny who share the wonders of traditional processes, get to play in the sinks.

Photos of it were posted on the AA blog http://theanseladamsgallery.blogspot.com/ when they remodeled earlier this year.
My estimate is that there is ten linear feet of sink.

The darkroom in Carmel was recently shown in a series of videos:

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...=video+michael

One of the videos shows Michael Adams, Ansel's son demonstrating how Ansel's horizontal enlarger featured a grid of lights that he could switch on/off, essentially dodging/burning with the light source.

[Turner Reich]

In the PBS series I saw the lens on the horizontal enlarger and it was an APO Nikkor lens that I believe was 300mm, anyone else see that?

[timbo10ca]

How did Weston enlarge his negs, BTW? It is mentioned many times in his daybooks, but I can't figure out how he did it.

[Michael Alpert]

How did Weston enlarge his negs, BTW? It is mentioned many times in his daybooks, but I can't figure out how he did it.

I believe that Edward Weston occationally enlarged his 4x5 portraits by using his 8x10 as a copy camera. The resultant 8x10 negatives were contact printed. Otherwise, all of Edward Weston work consists of direct contact prints.

[Bill_1856]

while he was still alive. Weston printed in the simplest manner possible...

How is his printing now?

[willwilson]

I believe that Edward Weston occationally enlarged his 4x5 portraits by using his 8x10 as a copy camera. The resultant 8x10 negatives were contact printed. Otherwise, all of Edward Weston work consists of direct contact prints.

Michael, can you or someone else expand on your comments above. I have always been curious about this.

[Michael Alpert]

Will, I am not sure what there is to explain. A 4x5 hand-held camera is better (or at least quicker) at photographing people than an 8x10. If you want an 8x10 print from a 4x5 negative and you have no enlarger, you need to make an in-camera 8x10 negative. In theory, Weston could have purchased an enlarger; but his whole frame-of-reference was oriented toward contact prints. He was a master with that paper and that technique. So it makes sense for a smart guy like E. W. to stick to what he knew best. There's a lesson here for photographers (like me) who are constantly "upgrading" their film or digital equipment.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I believe Weston used a 3x4" Graflex before he had the 4x5" Graflex.

There are two main approaches to making enlarged negatives with a camera. One is to make a small contact print and photograph it with the larger camera as one would for any kind of standard copy work. Another would be to use a film interpositive, either by contact printing the original onto another piece of film and photograph it on a light box, or to photograph the original neg on a lightbox to produce the interpositive, and then contact print that to make the enlarged negative. I'm not sure which method Weston used.

[Merg Ross]

Frank, sorry to take this further off topic, but I wanted to add to David's comments. I hope that your sink research is successful!

Weston did his early portraits with a 61/2"x81/2" studio camera fitted with a Graf Variable. He then graduated to a 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 Graflex and around 1933 or '34 purchased a 4x5 Auto-Graflex with a f5.5 Meyer Plasmat. Prior to purchasing the Auto-Graflex he retouched portrait negatives with pencil and enlarged them to 8x10 with a soft focus Verito. He ceased retouching portrait negatives after purchasing the Auto-Graflex.