Photographers who did ... what??

[Brian C. Miller]

I was perusing Life magazine's site, and I came across a gallery of their covers (http://www.life.com/gallery/66721/lifes-20-worst-covers?iid=life75|editorspicks#index/2). Guess whose photograph made it onto Life magazine? Ansel Adams. Was it a landscape? No. Still life? No.

Click and find out.

Know any more like that?

[Heroique]

Thanks Brian, you won a chuckle from me!

Below, I’ve added a young Ansel – plus the 1938 Life cover in your link.

Well, my main reaction is that no photographer – especially those under assignment – takes good pictures with every click!

Life’s caption says:

“Come, America, and celebrate Christmas with … a lutist. (Shortly after this cover ran, the photographer stopped taking pictures of lutists and began photographing Yosemite. His name? Ansel Adams.)”

Hmm. Seems that Life is slyly distancing itself from its own poor editorial decisions, even though they rank this cover as one of their very worst ever.

[Ari]

Well, he was terrible at shooting people.
All those tree pictures, no wonder his portraits looked so, so...wooden.

I'd hire him as my lab tech anytime, though. :)

[ic-racer]

Anthony Hopkins should star in an Ansel Adams movie...

[neil poulsen]

The candles really make the photo.

[Heroique]

The candles really make the photo.

Come to think of it, the Life cover does remind me of one of those 17th-century Caravaggio paintings of an Italian subject in dramatic candle light.

Except Caravaggio would never place the candles where they look like they’re burning the subject’s fingers! Is she wincing in pain?

BTW, I thought that was Joan Baez. Wrong era, but hot fingers indeed.

[cowanw]

Actually it looks like a bad Mortensen photo.

[Mark Sampson]

Well, that illustrates perfectly the dangers of working professionally. Not only do you get to take assignments that do not play to your strengths, but then an editor chooses the final image, often without your input. And 73 years later, it's still there to be seen with your name on it. At least LIFE paid well.

[Brian Ellis]

Of course Adams was a working commercial photographer for much of his life so he made the photographs that his clients wanted. He didn't come into the big bucks until Bill Turnage took over his business affairs, which IIRC was in the early 1970s. I'd bet there are worse photographs than this one from his pre-Turnage days out there somewhere.

[Frank Petronio]

Ansel Adams did very fine but utterly boring photos for many colleges and some industries. He also did the early giant Kodak Coloramas. He was probably the equivalent to a high-end annual report photographer, made a good living from it in the 50s since he built that nice house in Carmel - and even then it couldn't have been cheap.

The University of Rochester has a nice collection of his images from his work with them. They are very well lit and composed, much better than average, but pretty sterile and boring all the same.

[Jon Shiu]

...made a good living from it in the 50s since he built that nice house in Carmel - and even then it couldn't have been cheap.


As I recall from his biography, Adams built the Carmel house in the 60's, but it was paid for by a patron, $100,000, I think.

Jon

[Merg Ross]

As I recall from his biography, Adams built the Carmel house in the 60's, but it was paid for by a patron, $100,000, I think.

Jon

Construction money for the Carmel house came from sale of the Adams' family home in San Francisco in the early 1960's. His patron (and Weston patron) Dick McGraw was responsible for Ansel's acquisition of the Carmel lot; quite possibly a gift, as Dick owned several acres on the Point.

[Brian C. Miller]

So, does anybody have more examples of photographers and photos that said photographer would probably rather sweep under the rug? (Not that a cover photo can go under the rug...)

Another thing to consider is, the rest of the photos the editors considered for that cover were worse than Adam's photograph.

[Merg Ross]

Well, my main reaction is that no photographer – especially those under assignment – takes good pictures with every click!



To quote Ansel from his autobiography, in reference to commercial assignments: "I admit doing a lot of professional work that disturbed my aesthetic integrity. None was intentionally dishonest".

[John Koehrer]

Well, he was terrible at shooting people.
All those tree pictures, no wonder his portraits looked so, so...wooden.

I'd hire him as my lab tech anytime, though. :)

"Adams made people look like rocks, Weston made rocks look like people"

[Ari]

"Adams made people look like rocks, Weston made rocks look like people"

Maybe that's why I'm a fan of neither, though both have their respective merits.

[Alan Curtis]

Several years ago a friend of mine, who was in the framing business wanted me to look at several photographs he was asked to mat and frame. The client was a retired executive from the Wolverine Boot Company. He had about 20 AA photographs that were used in various ads that the company ran, the photos were stored in a cardboard box since the late 1950's. They were quite unremarkable photographs by AA standards. Ansel had to pay the bills just like everyone else in the business.

[Lynn Jones]

The greatest number of Life covers was by Phlippe Halsman 125 or more, the second greatest was from Carl Mydans with 50 or more.

Lynn

[Curt Palm]

I'd guess this photo was made at (at at least with one of the performers from) the Bracebridge dinners that the Ahwahnee Hotel.

[edtog]

So, does anybody have more examples of photographers and photos that said photographer would probably rather sweep under the rug? (Not that a cover photo can go under the rug...)

Another thing to consider is, the rest of the photos the editors considered for that cover were worse than Adam's photograph.

It's a OK set of images and probably paid a lot of bills but McCullins safari calendar from 20-30 years ago seems very wrong, on many levels.

[Merg Ross]

The greatest number of Life covers was by Phlippe Halsman 125 or more, the second greatest was from Carl Mydans with 50 or more.

Lynn

Lynn, I believe that Alfred Eisenstaedt had close to 90 Life covers. My friend Peter Stackpole had 26 covers; he lived up the street from me for many years until his house was destroyed by fire in 1991.