[Leica] RE: Ansel Adams

[brad at bradbrad.com (brad daly)]

ansel adams is *so* ubiquitous as a calendar photographer that it's 
really hard to look at his pictures as anything but mass produced art.  
he is certainly an immensely important figure in photography but is 
almost too big to deal with.  i don't think it's an impossibility: 
shakespeare, for instance, is arguably way, way, way more important in 
literature but *is* definitely dealt with very seriously, in spite of 
all the pop shakespeare crap we have to contend with.

another sort of analogy might be the mona lisa.  it's a quite good 
renaissance painting but is almost impossible to deal with because it's 
the MONA LISA.  it's a cultural sign that is SO huge, so much more than 
really any other painting.

--brad


On 7 Mar 2005, at 3:01 PM, Der Eiserne Reiter wrote:

> As a relativeley new LUG member, I am surprised to read how AA is 
> being discussed. He should not
> be reduced to just a calendar photographer of Yosemite. As a "week-end 
> warrior", I have spent
> multiple Sunday evenings looking at his books and landscapes always 
> admiring the style that I feel
> he helped create. I am also not sure at all if AA would like what 
> became of Yosemite (with his
> help ?) ...


--
brad daly       
brad@bradbrad.com
http://www.bradbrad.com

What Would Bill Hicks Say?

"You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style."
        --Vladimir Nabokov