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Thread: Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

  1. #11

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    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    >I seriously doubt that Ansel or Edward would have embraced digital, had they been alive today. If both of them were still alive and active, they would certainly realize that digitally produced (inkjet printed) B&W prints do not come up to the high standards that they set with the prints that they produced in their wet darkrooms.

    >The future remains to be seen.

    >--Eugene Singer, 2003-12-12 12:52:16

    Pffft. Please, try not to foist your belief system onto those no longer alive. The evidence is that AA used the tools available to him--and he experimented. It is highly probable that he would be a Photoshop wiz and would be making stunning prints on an inkjet--just like many are doing now.

    Wet silver printing will become an 'alternative' process--just like the processes it replaced did. I'm sure there were whiners wailing and gnashing their teeth when that awful, low-standard, imitation silver gelatin process replaced earlier ones.

    I seriously doubt that Ansel or Edward would be that narrow minded.

  2. #12

    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    I think Weston would be the one more likely to have the 18-year-old assistant.

  3. #13
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    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    Jon, Are you saying that the black and white prints that we are able to digitally output with todays tools are equal to the black and white prints that Ansel and Edward produced?? If that's what you are saying, I say Pfft.(whatever that means) to you too!!

    Yes I am narrow minded when it comes to silver gelatin prints. For fifty-five years, I have been attempting to duplicate the tonal quality and luminoscity in my prints that those men were able to obtain in their silver gelatin prints, and I have not been sucessful, as yet. But, I haven't given up trying. Black and white digital printing still has a way to go. Ansel and Edward would have realized that fact, even though you don't..

  4. #14

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    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    Given that Adams:

    <UL>
    <LI>Shot El Capitan, Winter Sunrise using Polaroid B&W instant negative material.
    <LI>Apparently sent over three thousand memos to Polaroid regarding their instant films.
    </UL>

    it would appear that he was interested in exploring, and even guiding development of, new technologies. Most other established photographers did not take much, or any, interest in Polaroid, preferring to stick with their tried-and-true methods.



    It seems likely he would take a great deal of interest in digital, and possibly work with developers of the technology, as he did with Polaroid.



    Whether he would use it, in practice, would depend on whether it fulfilled his goals. With Polaroid it appears that, ultimately, it did not offer sufficient advantages over non-instant film to become his preferred medium.

  5. #15

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    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    I don't know, I read that Ansel was a randy old fellow too, so I wouldn't disallow him the probability of a cute 18 year assistant. He almost dumped his family for one in the 1930s...

    The real question is would they would both be using Viagra?

  6. #16

    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    Funny Geoffrey, when comparisson like this come up, you ask me to "let it slide" yet here you are as frequently as me voicing your opinion in favor of digital.

    Jorge, it seems like you have a point here but you don’t :-)) See what the original question was;

    Does anyone doubt that Ansel Adams or Edward Weston would have embraced digital had they been alive today ?
    How would you speculate the flavour of their work to change ?


    I also said, keeping exactly YOU in mind;

    Some would ride horses only even today as a personal choice, and that is fine as well.

    I still say, despite anything that was said today or before that digital is not a panacea for everything. At least not for B&W today, but color is a lost war already :-((

    Again, I don’t care for the technique but the result, and most photographers have their problem exactly with that!

  7. #17
    Founder QT Luong's Avatar
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    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    By an eerie coincidence, today this question was asked on nothing less than

    Slashdot
    (the ultimate geek news site for those not in the know).

  8. #18

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    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    The question poses the tease of film verses digital , that is a flase premise, there is a purpose for each and the film vs. digital arguement is no more valid than the arguement of color vs. B&W or 4x5 vs. 20x24 Polariod. Each has its purpose depending on the application and the subject. To do one at the exclusion of the other is just plain ridiculous, like saying that I will eat only some things when the world is full of wonderful food. The "fight" between the two methods of recording a visual image is just so much posturing like saying I will date only blondes to the exclusion of redheads. That is a self indulgent arguement for the mentaly challenged and is facile from an emotional prespective. So get digital and get film and shoot both and get over it! Like get Life, Duh!

  9. #19

    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    The topic du jour evidently:

    http://www.fortune.com/fortune/ontech/0,15704,560361,00.html

    As for my two cents, Ansel would have been lent all the latest technology by the manufactures (just was he received Poloriod material from Land for instance) and if it suited his purposes he would have used it and written about.
    John Hennessy

  10. #20

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    Ansel and his PhaseOne back ????

    At first I thought this was an inane question -- kind of like what car would Jesus drive? But it stayed with me; so maybe it isn't.

    I am firmly of the POV that Adams was both a scientist and an experimenter, as well as an artist. This is the impression I have from the people I have known who knew him reasonably well. So my line of thought was "what would Adams have DONE in the digital domain?" I have come to the opinion that he would have first concentrated on profiling methodologies. After all, the Zone System is essentially a profiling system for mapping capture and rendering technologies in an analog world. The reason it doesn't transfer as well to color is the limited control over the color space that you have in color chemistry. You can't chemically expand or re-map the color space predictably like you can in the b&w domain. But digital color is a different animal. I bet that's where he would have started to innovate.

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