Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/12/06
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]on 12/6/00 1:18 AM, Oliver Bryk at obryk@flash.netdex.com wrote: > FWIW and AIUI many of Ansel Adams's photographs served a bona fide > political purpose, i.e., to further the conservation and protection of > wild places, expand the system of National Parks, and the like. IMHO > such images might well follow in the pictorial tradition of the great > landscape painters and early photographers of the American West whose > work did much to raise public awareness and establish national parks. > (getting my asbestos suit ready...) > Oliver Bryk > True, true. Another thing: I have to remind myself that seeing AA's work today isn't the same as seeing it when it was first done. Our modern eyes are jaded by a bombardment of spectacular nature images. When Adams made his famous photos, people had never seen images like them. My final thought on AA: seen on a postcard, his work is, well, just another pretty postcard. Seeing a print in person is really the only way to experience any impact at all. I think this is true for all of the people who have followed in his footsteps. You run into the same problem with paintings. Books and reproductions just don't do them justice. Books, however, are great for viewing our favorite Leica people - HCB, Friedlander, etc. dc