[Leica] Is B.D. all wet again?

[wooderson at gmail.com (Matt Powell)]

On Apr 4, 2005 6:25 PM, Walt Johnson <walt@waltjohnson.com> wrote:
> 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.
> Walt

Is that really a defense of him as an artist? I wouldn't disagree that
he was an important environmentalist, humanitarian and maybe even a
great person, but none of that makes me care more for another
impeccably printed mountain.

I dislike Adams not because of his imitators but because the work
itself never says much to me. (Maybe if I were more outdoorsy, I'd
'get' it.) As far as I'm concerned, a mountain is a mountain and a
tree is a tree, and a photo of either had better have something to
say.

There's a portfolio online of color photographs taken by Adams in one
of our Japanese concentration camps that I prefer to all of his
landscapes. They're the work of someone engaged with humanity and the
world around him and I'll take that over nature's majesty any day.

-- 
MP
wooderson@gmail.com