Alhambra Book Published

[adrian tyler]

Hi

Finally after 4 years work my book of images from the Alhambra, Granada, Spain Called "From Darkness to Light, THe Alhambra" is published! It's on its way to the US distributor and available for pre-order at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Alhambra-Darkness-Light-Lee-Fontanela/dp/8492441895/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284707811&sr=1-1

lots of large format pictures, well mostly large, but medium and digital format too, you can see some of the work here:

http://www.adriantyler.net/print02.cfm?idcategoria=43&idarticulo=89&idseccion=11

I'd like to thank the people on this forum for all their kind help
whilst learning about large formant photography

adrian

[Struan Gray]

Congrats Adrian, looks like a lot of hard work went into that. Nice to see some shots of Granada that are not dialled up to '11' for warmth, saturation and overall cozy niceness.

[Frank Petronio]

Congrats Adrian, I went through your website for an update too -- you have the highest caliber work throughout.

[sanking]

Adrian,

Looks like a great book and I will be ordering it.

I spent a year studying in Granada as a young man and am also very familiar with the work of Lee Fontanella so lots there to recommend the book to me.

Sandy King

[adrian tyler]

Thanks for the support guys! yes Struan, this was as much a battle agianst "visual imperative" than anything, and Sandy, Lee Fontanella was the obvious choice as author as he is the highest authority on Hispanic 19th century photography, and unlike so many curators he actually knows what a photograph IS...

[Drew Bedo]

Great Job!

[Henry Ambrose]

Excellent!!

[Miguel Curbelo]

¡Muy bien chico!

[Matus Kalisky]

Congratulations Adrian.

As a matter of coincidence I have visited Alhambra just 2 weeks ago and still have many views in a fresh memory. In particular I was impressed by the view that is so well visualized by the photo 7/8 on your webpage (which I tried to photograph but most certainly failed as tripods are not allowed there). I hope that the book will be available also in Europe at some point.

Actually - how one gets to such a place alone without any tourists? I failed to get even a tripod permission (I tried to arrange one per email).

[sanking]

Actually - how one gets to such a place alone without any tourists? I failed to get even a tripod permission (I tried to arrange one per email).

I mentioned in a pm to Adrian that one of the big regrets of my life is that I was not more involved with photography when I spent a year in Granada while studying at the University of Granada. As a student of the university we had free access to the Alhambra whenever it was open, and my friends and I spent hundreds of hours in the place, often when there were no tourists at all.

It has become increasingly difficult to get tripod access in Spain to places like the Alhambra, the Alcazar in Sevilla, the Mezquita in Cordoba, and even to many of the cathedrals. To get permission you must nearly always go through the local authorities that control the historical site. In Sevilla that would be the municipal government for the Alcazar, or the bishop for the very large cathedral that is there, and for other churches in Spain, and the same is true for the monasteries. And the authority that can give permission is almost never on site so if you hope to use a tripod plan to spend several days getting the permission. I have never had any problem getting permission but I speak fluent Spanish and have a university background and knowledge of Spain that opens up doors that might be closed to others.

I am sure Adrian has a lot of stories about getting access to the Alhambra and avoid the mobs of tourists that one finds there year round.

Would mention also that one of the reasons it is so hard to photograph in the churches today is because they are nearly always closed. Church attendance is very, very low in Spain today and no one attending mass the churches just stay locked most of the time.

Sandy King

[adrian tyler]

sandy

it is horrific trying to get into places that are contolled by burocrats... official letters, follow up calls, you name it, but in my 18 years here in spain attendance at the alhambra has risen from almost zero to 3,000,000 people a year! you can imagine the accidents waiting to happen (old lady crashes to the floor folloved by an 8x10 deardorff) with even 1% of those visitors yeilding a tripod.

i'm afraid that what has happend here is a model of the US, you need a permit to photograph in most national parks for example and then that nest of hornets "image copyright" (just try to publish a photo of the Guggenheim in Bilbao for example without Gehry getting a slice of the cake). it seems to be one of the things we as photographers are up against and you need the tenacity, time and patience to be able to "get over it". and of course be able to accept failure and move on to the next idea!

adrian

[sanking]

sandy

it is horrific trying to get into places that are contolled by burocrats... official letters, follow up calls, you name it, but in my 18 years here in spain attendance at the alhambra has risen from almost zero to 3,000,000 people a year! you can imagine the accidents waiting to happen (old lady crashes to the floor folloved by an 8x10 deardorff) with even 1% of those visitors yeilding a tripod.

i'm afraid that what has happend here is a model of the US, you need a permit to photograph in most national parks for example and then that nest of hornets "image copyright" (just try to publish a photo of the Guggenheim in Bilbao for example without Gehry getting a slice of the cake). it seems to be one of the things we as photographers are up against and you need the tenacity, time and patience to be able to "get over it". and of course be able to accept failure and move on to the next idea!

adrian

Adrian,

I noticed a huge difference in access between 1994 and 2001. I had sabbaticals both years and spent several months in Spain in the spring when there are generally not that many tourists in most places. The Alhambra would be an exception I imagine. In 1994 I had almost unlimited access to every place, and in the few places where a tripod was required I was able to get one without too much trouble. When I returned in 2001 to some of the same places I had to jump through hoops to get the permissions.

The trip in 2001 changed my whole concept of visiting Spain. Now I avoid the cities and spend time on the road doing landscape work. But this year I did notice that even in the national parks you may find it impossible to use a tripod. I was photographing this spring in Ordesa in the pirineos/Aragon with a good friend, and great photographer, from La Coruña (José Vázquez Caruncho, Lee knows him by the way) and at one point he told me to put my equipment away because a park official was in the area. I was really surprised to hear that there was this kind of restriction in the national parks but I guess it has become common.

In any event, with all these changes it is even more remarkable that you were able to produce the work for your book, and I am really looking forward to owning it.

Best,

Sandy

[Richard Kenward]

Hi

Finally after 4 years work my book of images from the Alhambra, Granada, Spain Called "From Darkness to Light, THe Alhambra" is published! It's on its way to the US distributor and available for pre-order at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Alhambra-Darkness-Light-Lee-Fontanela/dp/8492441895/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284707811&sr=1-1



Dear Adrian

Congratulations on the book.... what a fantastic job you have done. I now have a copy in the office and leafing through it brings back the pleasure of working with you on the pictures.

Cheers

Richard - Precision Drum Scanning

[sanking]

Dear Adrian

Congratulations on the book.... what a fantastic job you have done. I now have a copy in the office and leafing through it brings back the pleasure of working with you on the pictures.

Cheers

Richard - Precision Drum Scanning

I have received my copy also. Wonderful work. So much of the literature published on the Alhambra has this false super saturated color. I love Adrian's book, in part, because the color looks so realistic.

Sandy King