Quote Originally Posted by Vaughn View Post
Instead of a single piece being one's "masterpiece", I would think that a body of work shown in a known gallery would be the mark of becoming a "master". In AA's case, showing at 291 would be his "masters work".
Have you ever seen the book of images from that 291 show of Adams? I presume that the prints were beautiful, (or old Steiglitz wouldn't haven't shown them), but as images their content is all over the place -- actually the sort of thing that most photographers do when starting out. Sort of like a student end-of-term show for Photography 101. Nothing there to indicate that he would eventually become the outstanding landscape photographer that he evolved into.