Ansel Adams--Photography-The Incisive Art

July 21, 2014 9:27 PM

The grandeurs and intimacies of nature will, I hope, encourage the spectator to seek for himself the inexhaustible sources of beauty in the natural world around him. Fortunate is he indeed who can see Mount McKinley against the summer midnight sky.... From a 1962 documentary about the photography of Ansel Adams produced by THIRTEEN/WNET.

For more Ansel Adams viewing online:

Records of the National Park Service (featuring dozens of photographs, but they must be viewed by clicking on each link indvidually).

Photographs of Japanese-American internment at Manzanar. Viewable here as a slideshow.

posted by MoonOrb (3 comments total)

I don't know if it is because of changing tastes or more difficult to get them licensed, but I see his photos around a lot less now than I used to. I still see the occasional calendar, but nothing like the presence his photos had a couple of decades ago.

I was only familiar with his landscape images and hadn't known about the Manzanar ones before -- those are really rich and amazing. (And unlikely to be seen on a calendar or framed in a doctor's waiting room.)
posted by Dip Flash at 5:26 AM on July 22, 2014

I just saw a handful of his pictures at the Getty in March and really enjoyed them. I wound up buying a large book about him and his work at the gift shop. I know it's because I grew up in a digital age and have rarely used anything besides a digital camera (and I never do much post processing or Photoshop) or a cheap disposable one, but it was fascinating to realize exactly how much work a film photographer puts into not just taking the picture, but into developing it.

I hadn't realized how much the choices you make during the development process changes how the image looks. For example, as Adams got older, he'd tend to develop things with a higher/stronger contrast because his vision was fading. The book showed examples of the same photo he'd develop decades apart, which showed concretely what a difference it can make, very fascinating to someone like me who knows jack about photography.
posted by skycrashesdown at 8:00 AM on July 22, 2014

Is it just me?

Adams was know for the clarity and quality of his printing more than anything else.

The online links to some of his work look rather fuzzy to my eye....
posted by CrowGoat at 9:17 AM on July 22, 2014