Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/04/04

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Subject: [Leica] Is B.D. all wet again?
From: bdcolen at earthlink.net (B. D. Colen)
Date: Mon Apr 4 17:54:00 2005

Don't sit on it next time, Walt!:-) And I wouldn't argue with you for a
minute when you say that one Ansel is worth 27 Maplethorpes.

My complaint about Adams has nothing to do with his contribution as an
environmentalist - seminal; his contribution as a photo technician -
seminal; or his writings: I just don't like his photography. And it has
nothing to do with all the derivative crap out there; it just doesn't do
anything for me - particularly as I know that the end result looks
virtually nothing like his negatives. Okay, so he was a master printer. 

But we've all got our likes and dislikes. And if you like Ansel, you've
got allot more people on your side than I do on mine - I'd be willing to
be that the number of people who have even heard Eugene Smith's name
pales by comparison to the number of people who actually own some form
of image - book, print, poster, calendar, coffee mug, Frisbee - by Ansel
Adams.

:-)

Best

B. D.

-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+bdcolen=earthlink.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of
Walt Johnson
Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 7:26 PM
To: Lugmail
Subject: [Leica] Is B.D. all wet again?


Can't help it B.D., been dwelling  on a comment you made a while back.
Was 
gonna let it slide (sometimes it best to keep trap shut) but must
respond.

You mentioned how boring  the Ansel Adams genre was. I railed. I chomped
at 
the bit. I had steam coming out my ears. I kept my mouth shut.

Sorry, but it's of no avail. Ansel was a man who set trends, not
followed 
them. Sure, there are lots of look -alikes out there today. 'I'm sure we

could uncover a lot of Gene Smith clones too. Hey, every time I turn
around 
there are folks emulating Robert Frank, William Klein and Mary Ellen
Mark.

One thing is certain though, Ansel was an original. Sure, some of his 
writing was a bit pedantic but he was an original. Artist,
environmentalist, 
and humanitarian.

I help to  hang one of his shows in 1969 and was very sad not to be able
to 
have $75 dollars to buy a signed "Moonrise over Hernandez".  (that was
with 
the student discount)

One Ansel is worth about 27 Maplethorpes. (sp) Hell, haven't used
anything 
other than a Nikon, Leica, or RB since school days but if I wanted to
know 
the ins and outies of a view cam I'd certainly look to Ansel's writings.

Walt


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In reply to: Message from walt at waltjohnson.com (Walt Johnson) ([Leica] Is B.D. all wet again?)