RE: [Leica] Ansel Adams, Yosemite NP, and Moonscapes

["Khoffberg" <khoffberg@email.msn.com>]

I believe it goes something like this:

Ansel, while legendary for his scrupulous notes on the actual images
themselves, was notoriously sloppy about taking down information like when
he actually took the picture.  If you've read about Ansel, you know he
tended to go back to places many times so confusion was inevitable.  You
also know that we wracked up an amazing number of miles during his epic
years during and after the war.  Shortly after Moonrise was made he accepted
a project from the Department of the Interior to shoot the national parks.
In one year alone he drove 75,000 miles so a bit of forgetfulness is
understandable.

If there is a controversy over that picture it stems from the fact that
during that time he was on a per diem from the DOI and thus any images he
made while on their clock belonged to them.  For many years after he came up
with all manner of reasons why he should keep possession of the negatives.
Makes sense if you think about the care he took and the lack of care some
civil service grade 9 would take.

Whenever Ansel was on assignment, he always made a point of taking time to
shoot for himself.  During the time he was shooting for the DOI he actually
charged very few days to them.  But out of all this arises the controversy.
Is it possible that the image belongs to the DOI because it was shot on
their per diem?  Ansel always maintained no because it was shot on his own
time with his film.  Is that what really happened?  No one will know.

In later years two different science types went to great lengths and
considerable processing time to calculate when the picture was shot working
backwards from the data that can be gleaned from the print itself.  Fans of
Ansel's will know that the science types were already in trouble given the
amount of dodging, burning, and general monkeying around Ansel had to do to
make an acceptable print from that plate.  With every passing year he
printed it differently anyway.  The second guy who did the analysis came up
with a different time and date than the first (duh!) because of he accounted
for Ansel's jimmy janging in his calcs.

Now you know.
Kevin Hoffberg