Review of new Ansel Adams book!

[Tin Can]

I am buying the book

On payday!

[Darin Boville]

Although I am an Ansel Adams fan, I prefer my interpretation of El Captain which I photographed and printed as a Kallitype in 2016. Watkins, Muybridge, and Adams interpretations are essentially similar.

Don't forget poor George Grant!

From my review:

The second image is a view of El Capitan. It's not the first time the view had been photographed. I first saw this view as a child helping my grandmother organize her extensive stamp collection. Somewhere out in my garage there is still a sheet of one cent, green postage stamps from 1934 showing almost the same image as Ansel's. Indeed, without the two side-by-side even a fan of Ansel's work could be forgiven for thinking it was by Ansel and not by George Grant, the chief photographer of the National Park service. (All of the images on the stamps from that series, in fact, look more Ansel-like than Ansel's own photographs at the time.) Carleton Watkins's image from 1866 is much the same. The view was, in fact, a well known one, popular with visitors, and much photographed.

Re-checking what I wrote gave me a chance to fix my spelling of "Carleton Watkins"--I am forever misspelling it!

--Darin

[Darin Boville]

And by the way, Vaughn, thanks for the tip. I didn't realize they had a copy of Parmelian Prints....

--Darin

[Vaughn]

They may not have the full portfolio. However individual prints pass through the gallery, so the chances are they will have several on hand at any one time. A call could answer that, and arrangements might be able to made to view them if you have dates set for a park visit. They are in the business of selling them, of course.

I had a workshop planned for now at the Ansel Adams Gallery, but with Covid19, all AAG workshops were cancelled...scheduled for next year (wrote with fingers crossed). Workshop participants (and instructors) are treated to a well-presented AA history along with work from AA's lifetime. You can not touch the (unframed) prints, but you can get as close as you can see.

[Darin Boville]

Interestingly, the author was also co-curator of the mega-show of Adams' work that the MFA put on at the time of the donation of the Lane collection. So she's been immersed in his work for a very long time.

She did her PhD dissertation on Ansel's early work--I think this book is the culmination of all of that. Bad timing with the virus, alas.

--Darin

[Oren Grad]

She did her PhD dissertation on Ansel's early work--I think this book is the culmination of all of that.

Good point. Looking just now at the timing - completed 2008 - she must have been writing, or at least researching, her dissertation concurrently with her work on the Lane Collection show.

https://buprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup...ank&mode=Basic

[Darin Boville]

Good point. Looking just now at the timing - completed 2008 - she must have been writing, or at least researching, her dissertation concurrently with her work on the Lane Collection show.

https://buprimo.hosted.exlibrisgroup...ank&mode=Basic

Indeed, it was the Lane show that got her interested in Ansel's early work as a PhD topic. She talks about that in her intro to the book.

And thanks for the link to her dissertation--I hadn't looked at that yet. [Edit: Her dissertation doesn't seem to be available to non-BU people, alas...]

--Darin

[Mark Sampson]

The author, Dr. Senf, wrote her PhD thesis on Adams. She and my wife are colleagues at the CCP, and I recently finished reading the book myself. It's serious, careful, and thorough. Overall, a very good look into how Ansel made his living and grew his vision in the first part of his career. Not really a light read, but then it wasn't meant to be- and the reproductions are quite good as well.
The book also mentions (gasp) money... having spent my working life as a professional, i appreciate historians recognizing that most of us have to earn a living, and that art doesn't 'just happen'. A quick run through the inflation calculator shows that Ansel's income for 1934 was about $80k in today's dollars, so his hard work was beginning to pay off. That level of success (in the depths of the Depression) must surely have helped give him the confidence to push his art even further, and to make the work that would later make him famous.

[reddesert]

Rebecca Senf is giving Internet (virtual) talks/presentations on the book and subject periodically, in lieu of a book tour I imagine. There's one next on Oct 21, 2020. If you miss that there might be a recording or another one. I tuned into one several months ago that was "hosted" by the Carmel photography center. They typically require registration but are free. See https://ccp.arizona.edu/exhibitions-...r-rebecca-senf

[Tin Can]

Thanks

Signed up!