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:
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?
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