Ansel Adams' portrait of tragedy

[Heroique]

Sometimes I come across Ansel Adams images I’ve never seen.

Often, they’re not from his landscape portfolio, but from his client portfolio, like this one:

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It’s part of a 1967 project to make a book with images of all Univ. of California campuses. This one features UC Irvine – a group of drama students rehearsing Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex on school grounds. I believe the teacher/director is standing; the kneeling male is King Oedipus; and the supine woman is his Queen-wife and (to his tragic discovery) his mother. I’m guessing here, but this might be when Oedipus has taken her down from the noose after she commits suicide, and he’s reaching for her long dress pins so he can put out his eyes. Pity and fear indeed.

I understand this was an LF image, but little else. Maybe someone can offer more about the camera, lens, film, processing, and printing. It would be nice if we knew the client’s instructions, but that’s a private affair of course – unless either party shared some of the details.

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Please tell us why you think this image works (or falls short) as a group portrait. Do you think AA considered the landscape elements carefully enough? Especially the lighting. And if you didn’t know the story behind the image, what would your initial reaction be, positive or negative?

[Pieter]

Sometimes I come across Ansel Adams images I’ve never seen.

Often, they’re not from his landscape portfolio, but from his client portfolio, like this one:

213398
It looks like a mediocre photo at best. And from the square format, might have been shot with a Hasselblad, not LF.

It’s part of a 1967 project to make a book with images of all Univ. of California campuses. This one features UC Irvine – a group of drama students rehearsing Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex on school grounds. I believe the teacher/director is standing; the kneeling male is King Oedipus; and the supine woman is his Queen-wife and (to his tragic discovery) his mother. I’m guessing here, but this might be when Oedipus has taken her down from the noose after she commits suicide, and he’s reaching for her long dress pins so he can put out his eyes. Pity and fear indeed.

I understand this was an LF image, but little else. Maybe someone can offer more about the camera, lens, film, processing, and printing. It would be nice if we knew the client’s instructions, but that’s a private affair of course – unless either party shared some of the details.

-----
Please tell us why you think this image works (or falls short) as a group portrait. Do you think AA considered the landscape elements carefully enough? Especially the lighting. And if you didn’t know the story behind the image, what would your initial reaction be, positive or negative?

[Tin Can]

Very 60's

It is a time capsule of how some were

I really wish I had been allowed in the Drama club, or Art classes

My parents and 'testing' at five HS, said no way, back to science and math...

art found me age 35

sales is an art

[j.e.simmons]

With the square format, I’d guess Hasselblad rather than LF.

[David Lindquist]

This photograph is from a large body of work Ansel Adams did for the University of California for their centennial (1968). Googling Ansel Adams University of California Centennial brings up a bunch of stuff pointing to the scope of this project. In 1967 McGraw-Hill published a book of (some of) these photographs titled Fiat Lux. In 1990 University of California, Irvine published a second book of photographs from this project, also titled Fiat Lux. To be clear the books are not identical but many of the same photographs appear in both. The photograph shown here does not; a different one of (presumably) the same production of Oedipus Rex does.

Both books include some technical details. Adams used a 5 x 7 Sinar with a 4 x 5 reducing back. Lenses listed are 12" Apo-Collinear; 9 1/4" Goerz Artar (probably actually 9 1/2"), 8" Kodak Ektar and 121 mm and 90 mm Super-Angulons. Film used: 5 X 7 Tri-X and Pan-X; 4 X 5 film pack, both Tri-X and Plus-X; and Polaroid 55P/N.

And he used the Hasselblad 500C with what looks like every lens available at the time from 50 mm to 500 mm. With this kit he used Tri-X, Pan-X and Plus-X.

Finally he shows using 35 mm: a Contarex with 21 mm, 35 mm, 85 mm and 135 mm lenses, Tri-X, Pan-X, and Plus-X.

Film developer was FG-7 "in various dilutions" with water and sometimes 9% sodium sulfite "and in conjunction with the alternative-waterbath process."

In the McGraw-Hill book Adams comments "a greater part of the work was done with the Hasselblad 500C." Guessing that's what he used on this photograph.

A factoid probably of no interest of anyone, I remember seeing him and his assistant at the time photographing Charter Day ceremonies at UC Berkeley in Spring 1964. In fact I think I can pick myself out in the photo reproduced in the McGraw-Hill book. I graduated early 1966, as I like to say, that was a bad year to use up your student deferment.;)

David

[Heroique]

With the square format, I’d guess Hasselblad rather than LF.


In the McGraw-Hill book Adams comments "a greater part of the work was done with the Hasselblad 500C." Guessing that's what he used on this photograph.



I think you’re probably right about a Hasselblad. I hope someone has more info about the technical aspects for this shot. The white paper stack, lower right, also caught my attention. Probably the play script? I was curious why the border abruptly cut it off. But I’m sure AA had a good reason for leaving it half-seen (and not placing it fully into the scene). Such a detail wouldn’t have escaped his attention, unless this was a fleeting moment of action. (On the other hand, the paper and the queen's two arms do form a triangle, pointing at Oedipus.)

[Drew Wiley]

Unfortunately, that very year what I witnessed on Calif. campus lawns was hundreds of people at a time bashing each other with fists, baseball bats, pieces of iron pipe, sometimes Molotov cocktails. A lot of blood and bruises, sometimes broken bones, and even a few fatalities. The Vietnam war era was contentious, to say the least. Besides Irvine, UC Davis was still just a water tower and a few buildings out in the middle of nowhere farmland. Now it's the premier agricultural and veterinary school in the entire world, surrounded on one side by a burb reaching almost to Sacramento, but still miles of fields the other three directions. It has wonderful botanical gardens worth casually roaming with a camera. UC Santa Cruz was still a figment of the imagination, but not long thereafter was ridiculed as being the place to go to study underwater basket weaving - not far from the truth back then. But there were two noted serious oceanographic academies slightly further down the coast. Santa Cruz itself was one dangerous wild town back then; now it's an overpriced techie hangout. I dread to even visit the city of Irvine, and would prefer to remember it as being comprised of extensive groves instead of endless stucco and asphalt.

I'm more familiar with Adams' book on UC Berkeley. He had a portrait of Melvin Calvin in there, who had won the Nobel prize, but also showed up to class once in boxer shorts, no pants, otherwise fully dressed, shoes, ties, coat.
I guess one has to be lost in their thoughts to be a recognized genius. I did portrait photos for a Nobel Physics nominee there once, who had his tie on backwards and forgot to comb his hair or tie his shoes.

[reddesert]

I think you’re probably right about a Hasselblad. I hope someone has more info about the technical aspects for this shot. The white paper stack, lower right, also caught my attention. Probably the play script? I was curious why the border abruptly cut it off. But I’m sure AA had a good reason for leaving it half-seen (and not placing it fully into the scene). Such a detail wouldn’t have escaped his attention, unless this was a fleeting moment of action. (On the other hand, the paper and the queen's two arms do form a triangle, pointing at Oedipus.)

As you noted, the paper and Jocasta's left arm both point from the edges to the center of the image, at the queen and Oedipus. Also, the sapling tree and post behind Oedipus forms a third leg of a tri-star, pointing toward the center. Ordinarily we are taught not to have trees or posts directly behind a subject's head because it creates a distracting "tree growing out of head" effect, but here it works out. Probably the fact that the sapling is much skinnier and lighter in shade set it apart from Oedipus's head. Adams might have lightened it in printing, plus the general haze/fog of the background serves to focus attention on the actors in the foreground.

The trifold symmetry of the these elements works well with the tight square composition. Even if it were originally a rectangle, I think it would be stronger this way. Squares are sometimes difficult to work in, but this one suits the subjects.

[Heroique]

In 1967 McGraw-Hill published a book of (some of) these photographs titled Fiat Lux. In 1990 UC Irvine published a second book of photographs from this project, also titled Fiat Lux. To be clear the books are not identical but many of the same photographs appear in both. The photograph shown here does not; a different one of (presumably) the same production of Oedipus Rex does.

That’s a helpful context, David.

“Fiat Lux” – “Let there be light,” in case anyone’s curious.


As you noted, the paper and Jocasta's left arm both point from the edges to the center of the image, at the queen and Oedipus. Also, the sapling tree and post behind Oedipus forms a third leg of a tri-star, pointing toward the center. […] The trifold symmetry of the these elements works well with the tight square composition.

Nice observation. Now that I see the "trifold design," I agree that it directs the eye, adds balance, and helps control a violent moment.

[Mark Sampson]

What I find interesting is that Adams, at age 65, was still taking on major commercial assignments.
I see that as proof that a) he was a workaholic and b) that at the time, the art market for photographs was not enough to support him (despite his fame and undoubted success).

[Merg Ross]

A factoid probably of no interest of anyone, I remember seeing him and his assistant at the time photographing Charter Day ceremonies at UC Berkeley in Spring 1964. In fact I think I can pick myself out in the photo reproduced in the McGraw-Hill book. I graduated early 1966, as I like to say, that was a bad year to use up your student deferment.;)

David

Interest to me, David. I was working as a photographer on the UC Campus during the period you mention, and later. I was hired in 1961 as staff photographer and lab technician in the Graphic Arts Department. Most anything happening that needed a photographer, I was there. You may recall the Blue & Gold Yearbooks; I made the prints that went to the engraver. My first big event to cover was when President Kennedy spoke on Charter Day in 1962, and filled Memorial Stadium with a crowd of 80,000. I was with a very large international press, and cleared by Secret Service to accompany him as he approached the rostrum from the North tunnel. I then rushed up to the press box to get an overall of the festivities with a Speed Graphic and 90mm Angulon, shot on Ektachrome. It was a big event in my life; I was just twenty.

Little did I know that eighteen months later President Kennedy would be my Commander in Chief. So, I missed the 1964 Charter Day you mention, but did return to my old job and photographed Ansel at the 1968 Centennial of the University of California. He had received an Honorary Degree from the university in 1961. I sent him prints from the day, and in return received a kind acknowledgement typed with his arthritic fingers. He conveyed his disappointment with the Charter Day ceremonies, but that is a political topic. It is directly related as to why Ansel's archive is at the University of Arizona, and not with the University of California.

Heroique, please accept my apologies for this diversion. I will add, that my guess is the Hasselblad was used for the photo in question; there are letters in the archive from both Calumet and Hasselblad pertaining to this project; the photo has a Hasselblad look, to me.

[Heroique]

The image has triggered many elegiac comments about the times – maybe it’s partly because the rehearsing students are seen in 1960s hairstyles and fashions, not Greek costumes; and to be sure, the foggy scene does make it seem dreamy, appearing out of distant memories, like an ancient myth.

After some sleuthing, I discovered brief remarks, in a Theater Times article, by the very teacher who’s standing in the scene with clasped hands, Professor Robert Cohen, who retired from UCI in 2015:


“This was the 1960s,” Cohen recalls, “which was the heyday of experimental theater, and my Oedipus was intended as a revolutionary production. […] Ansel Adams shot for about three hours. It was a foggy day, which I regretted but he didn’t. He was enthusiastic about the work we were doing, asked tons of questions, delighted in our Greek chanting and improvised dancing. He had a large format camera [more likely Hasselblad, as posters above suggest] and shot sparingly, but each of the images that I eventually saw was superb. He had no assistant, and I don’t recall that he used any light reflectors or other paraphernalia now common on such shoots. It also turned out that he was a theater buff, very active in his community theater in Carmel, where he lived at the time, and extremely keen on avant-garde theater, which is how we classed ourselves. So, we became friends in the process.”

A cultural time and place whose flaws and aspirations are long-vanished, but not forgotten.

[Drew Wiley]

As I repeatedly heard it, correctly or not, his print and pictures book sales alone, or art-side of his career, didn't really launch into full orbit as a financial success until he was nearly 80. That no doubt contributed to his commercial success long beforehand by placing him the spotlight; but it was really his heirs and formal trust that benefitted most dollar-wise. A major chunk of his income was due to him being paid in stock for testing and promoting Polaroid instant-print materials. Another factor was just demographics. People like him and even the starving artist types like Edward Weston bought scenic coastal properties affordably back then, which subsequently skyrocketed into stratospheric resort pricing.

[Pieter]

As I repeatedly heard it, correctly or not, his print and pictures book sales alone, or art-side of his career, didn't really launch into full orbit as a financial success until he was nearly 80. That no doubt contributed to his commercial success long beforehand by placing him the spotlight; but it was really his heirs and formal trust that benefitted most dollar-wise. A major chunk of his income was due to him being paid in stock for testing and promoting Polaroid instant-print materials. Another factor was just demographics. People like him and even the starving artist types like Edward Weston bought scenic coastal properties affordably back then, which subsequently skyrocketed into stratospheric resort pricing.

Weston's property was a wedding gift from his farther-in-law and the original house (more like a really nice cabin) was built by his son and is still in the family. I don't know about Adams.

[tgtaylor]

I thought that Ansel Adams was instrumental in getting Weston a house in Carmel.

Thomas

[Pieter]

I thought that Ansel Adams was instrumental in getting Weston a house in Carmel.

ThomasI am not aware that Adams had any influence in Weston moving to Carmel, but I don't really know that much about Adams. My understanding is Weston first moved to San Francisco to work for a portrait photographer and ended up in the photographer's cottage in Carmel. He later met and became Charis Wilson's lover and after their Guggenheim trips, settled at Wild Cat Hill, property belonging to Charis' father. It became a wedding gift when Edward and Charis married years later.

[Drew Wiley]

I heard EW managed to buy some additional property nearby in Carmel Valley when that was still undeveloped, which became a subsequent source of family wealth. Marriage itself was a rather tenuous thing with him. His own source of routine income, aside from incidental grants, was a portrait studio in Monterey. That side of his work almost never gets seen. His heart certainly wasn't in it. I still have family in the area, but haven't been in Carmel itself since way back during my own gallery gigs there. When my father was still alive, I'd take him through long scenic drives past Carmel Valley way back into the hills and round about - quite a bit of that burnt last year due to a local trying to arson evidence of his own "gardening" hobby. And now the route south along Hwy 1, past Big Sur, is totally out for awhile, due to another major slide this past winter.

[Merg Ross]

I heard EW managed to buy some additional property nearby in Carmel Valley when that was still undeveloped, which became a subsequent source of family wealth. Marriage itself was a rather tenuous thing with him. His own source of routine income, aside from incidental grants, was a portrait studio in Monterey. That side of his work almost never gets seen.

Edward Weston never owned property in Carmel Valley, nor did he have a portrait studio in Monterey. The Wildcat Hill property in the Carmel Highlands was deeded to him by Charis after their divorce. For his portrait sittings in Carmel, he used Johan Hagemeyer's studio. As for family wealth, Edward died with an account of of slightly over $300 dollars in the bank.

[Drew Wiley]

Thanks, Merg. Well, I was correct about his starving artist status. But where did that money that allowed Peggy Weston's gallery and related real estate holdings come from? Did Cole somehow gain independent financial momentum? Carmel was already becoming a very expensive town to buy real estate in. I've saw a lot of EW's portrait work when a nephew of Morley Baer inherited a huge lot of it and unsuccessfully tried to sell it off piece by piece at fine art pricing, along with Morley's own seconds.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Tree growing out of man's head... tsk, tsk, tsk.

[Drew Wiley]

Note how small those trees were on the Irvine campus. Just planted. It would be interesting to compare their size now. As for Oediupus Rex, got sick of reading it in High School. Only dummies were allowed into shop classes; so they were the ones who tended to have higher incomes as adults. The rest of us were forced to read Greek classics, Chaucer, etc. This was way out in the country an hour from any city, and I finished all my my requirement in two years. But early graduation was not allowed (four year program - no junior high back then), so I spent the last two years running around the hills under cross-country track auspices, or swimming in the creek that ran through the extensive school ag farm, looking for Indian artifacts (don't go politically correct on me - so were my Indian companions). A bygone era.