Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/12/21
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]I'm just back from the Ansel Adams exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. What an experience! So much of his work - many images I have never seen. It was wonderful to watch his development in printing. I often found myself wondering what the negative looked like - what choices he made to produce the print he ultimately created. None of these issues were addressed in the narrative. In fact there was a veiled criticism of his re-printing negatives 40 years after the fact. In all cases I found his later prints to be much more to my liking than the prints which dated from the '40s. The narrative referred to his late-life prints as being "melodramatic." I guess I saw a man who was out to capture every nuance of the negative and worked until he was able to express what he desired. Anyway - it's a wonderful exhibition. It took me about an hour and a half to walk through the first time. I went down and shared an ice-tea with my wife and then we went back and looked at images we particular admired. If you get a chance to go by all means enjoy this exhibition. One word: with perhaps two exceptions it is entirely his landscapes and nature photography. No portraits. No architecture (except one photo in New York City). I feel this is a serious omission but given the demands of space, hey, I can respect the curator's decisions. (mighty nice of me, eh?) This was a wonderful Christmas present. Adam Bridge - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html