[sany]

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Springdale, Arkansas, is hosting an exhibition entitled, "Ansel Adams in Our Time", now thru January 3, 2021. It was organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust.

From their website,

This sounds very interesting and a great opportunity for anyone who's going to be in the NW AR, SW MO, SE KS, NE OK area. The Ozark Mountains are normally beautiful with peak fall colors around late October/early November.

Here's a link to the Crystal Bridges webpage about it.

Ansel Adams in Our Time - Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Thanks for the information!

[derekmadge]

At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest and being seen as a heretic, what is so great about Ansel Adams? I do understand that they are large in scale, and that extraordinary technical skills went into taking and printing them. But I have never really being blown away. What are I missing.?

[womble]

At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest and being seen as a heretic, what is so great about Ansel Adams? I do understand that they are large in scale, and that extraordinary technical skills went into taking and printing them. But I have never really being blown away. What are I missing.?

A question and a comment. The question: have you ever seen a Adams print in the flesh, so to speak? And by one of his prints, I mean one he printed himself (there are "genuine" prints that were made in his studio but by one of his staff). I only became a really avid fan when I saw an exhibition of his work.

The comment: I am a huge fan of BW photography anyway, and am very fond of landscapes, so Adams' images really speak to me. So much so that I remember visiting a gallery a few years back and saw a photo on the wall. "Wow... that's stunning", I thought. I squinted down at the label below... and it was one of Adams' photographs. Now, if my taste was for colour, or for portraits, or street (although I'm also a big fan of Gerry Winogrand and Vivian Maier), or whatever else, I might be less moved (although I would still acknowledge the craftsmanship involved). Personally, I find the modern fashion in landscape photography for strongly saturated colour not to my taste. Thankfully, in this world, we have a huge variety of music, books, and art and hopefully we can all find something that stirs our souls whilst acknowledging that to someone else it might be more "meh".

Kris.

[derekmadge]

A question and a comment. The question: have you ever seen a Adams print in the flesh, so to speak? And by one of his prints, I mean one he printed himself (there are "genuine" prints that were made in his studio but by one of his staff). I only became a really avid fan when I saw an exhibition of his work.

The comment: I am a huge fan of BW photography anyway, and am very fond of landscapes, so Adams' images really speak to me. So much so that I remember visiting a gallery a few years back and saw a photo on the wall. "Wow... that's stunning", I thought. I squinted down at the label below... and it was one of Adams' photographs. Now, if my taste was for colour, or for portraits, or street (although I'm also a big fan of Gerry Winogrand and Vivian Maier), or whatever else, I might be less moved (although I would still acknowledge the craftsmanship involved). Personally, I find the modern fashion in landscape photography for strongly saturated colour not to my taste. Thankfully, in this world, we have a huge variety of music, books, and art and hopefully we can all find something that stirs our souls whilst acknowledging that to someone else it might be more "meh".

Kris.

Hi Kris,
I am afraid I have never seen an original Adams print, just reproductions in books. You have pretty much given me the answer I was looking for - why they are special to some people.

I also am a big black and white fan, and for many years did my own printing in black-and-white as it was all I could afford but I really enjoyed it. And no, not a single print I made would have stacked up against Ansel Adams, haha.

[DWS1]

I am going to this exhibition, probably next week. I want to see his original work the way he intended it to be viewed. He was a master in the darkroom.

[stevebrot]

At the risk of stirring up a hornet's nest and being seen as a heretic, what is so great about Ansel Adams?

A question and a comment. The question: have you ever seen a Adams print in the flesh, so to speak?

This ^ ^ ^

Interestingly, he did not print big. A great deal of his output was composed of 8x10 contact prints and he rarely exceeded 16x20 even when enlarged. He was very good at "seeing" his results before applying the camera to start the process of getting there and was also very good at that process. In the end, one might call the results art born of artistry. Using a musical analogy he compared the negative to the score and the print to the performance; his prints being fully orchestrated, of course.


Steve

[rodcy]

I too am a heretic as far as Ansel Adams is concerned. But then again, I'm not a big landscape fan. There seems to be something rather 'cold' about his work for me. Technically perfect perhaps but somehow just big views and rather lacking in something. . Mind you, his 'Moonrise' photo was a cracker. There you go, contradicted myself.

[TaoMaas]

I think we also need to keep in mind when it was that Adams created his most famous pictures. There are many great landscape photographers now, but a lot of Ansel's best work was from the last of the 1920s up into the 1940s. So what...80-100 years ago? That they were created that long ago and still kind of set the bar for black and white landscapes is a pretty remarkable thing.

[womble]

"Mannequins. Columbia movie lot, Los Angeles, CA, 1940" (sometimes "Dummies" rather than "Mannequins").