We just got back from a terrific Ansel Adams exhibit at the Paine Museum (http://www.thepaine.org/) in Oshkosh, WI. It's running through late October, and it's well worth a visit.
We just got back from a terrific Ansel Adams exhibit at the Paine Museum (http://www.thepaine.org/) in Oshkosh, WI. It's running through late October, and it's well worth a visit.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
Peter, I was there during the first couple days and the lights were so dim that the photographs were shown poorly..Did they fix it?.. Evan Clarke
There is a custom in museums nowadays to keep light levels quite low on valuable prints.
Since Ansel's work is all on modern silver medium, presumably well washed, fixed, and mounted, this seems a bit paranoid. But in cases like this, prints might have been loaned
from private collections or probably other institutions where insurance dictates the handling
and display parameters. Better safe than sorry.
The Ansel Adams exhibit "At the Waters Edge" at the Peabody Essex Museum is very well lit. Many of the prints there appear to be from a private collection.
James
This was extremely conservative..below the level that the owners of the collection required..
Different institutions typically have their own insurance, plus the variable of different personalities interpreting the implications or potential archival issues. I've seen lighting set
at both extremes, but don't think I'd attend a venue where I can hardly read the low values in the print.
Evan, the lights were dimmer than would make for ideal viewing, but I enjoyed the show none-the-less.
“You often feel tired, not because you've done too much, but because you've done too little of what sparks a light in you.”
― Alexander Den Heijer, Nothing You Don't Already Know
Oh, I did too, great collection but it was really dim..Shadows didn't show up at all..
The Adams exhibition at the Peabody Essex in Salem MA is excellent (and worth a return visit), but I did find the legend on the exhibition entrance to be droll.
I am well into the geriatric aging process, and although many physiological factors are less than ideal, I do find that I rather require the need to view objects that are not dimly illuminated to discern and appreciate the essence of fine detail.
I have visited a couple of Adam’s’ exhibits at other places, and found the presentation disappointingly distracting, so much so, that I felt it was a waste of time to have bothered my head trying to fathom the reasons for such dismal lighting.
If the photos are that susceptible to damage, they of course should be stored in coal-bins.
At two of the “galleries” I found the lighting to be just a grade above the illumination levels of a movie theatre before the feature presentation was to begin.
If the photographs are being presented for the purposed of enjoyment, why bother, because what you can’t see, you clearly cannot hardly enjoy.
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