AA photographs from AA Gallery by Alan Ross

[Deleted member 88956]

Does anyone here own any of the photographs that are available from Ansel Adams Gallery, which are printed by Alan Ross from original negatives and go for $295? The basic question is: is it worth it as far as overall quality? perhaps someone had a chance to directly compare an original actually printed by AA to this version? Short of getting a reproduction, this is probably as close as one can get to owning one (a close sibling) without breaking the bank.

Further to above, they also sell Archival Replicas. Any comparison between the two?

 

[mitch brown]

been to Alan's House , seen both. Alan doesn't do anything half - assed. don't think you could tell the difference if you tried. he has printed over 100,000 of these prints
Mitchel

 

[Deleted member 88956]

been to Alan's House , seen both. Alan doesn't do anything half - assed. don't think you could tell the difference if you tried. he has printed over 100,000 of these prints
Mitchel

Thanks, I'd like to have one of the quality prints from AA and this reassures me that it's worth it. Now I need to figure out how to get it across the pond without spending double its price.

 

[Jim Noel]

I have a print by Alan which I bought from Ansel in the 1960's. It is probably a better print than Ansel would have made as he had a tendency to overtone.

 

[rorye]

Yep, if it's printed by Alan Ross it's as good as you'll ever see.

 

[Keith Pitman]

I have two I bought in Yosemite in the 1980s (I think they were about $60 then). Both are excellent.

 

[L Gebhardt]

I have two of them printed by Alan Ross recently. The quality is excellent, and from what I have seen, on par with how Ansel would have printed them. A real bargain for the quality (as Ansel intended).

 

[Chan Tran]

While I don't think it's possible but would you like an AA photograph printed by yourself?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Alan is a serious photographer and printmaker in his own right, but by being directly associated with AA
he also knows how to interpret the negs faithfully and, despite AA bequeathing such raw material to the whims oif posterity, prints them to look as if Ansel himself would have done it. After all, that was his coach. Value-wise, these are just a commodity, a valuable source of income to the trust, but only marginally collectable - not anything like a vintage print. As decor, they probably "feel" more authentic than a picture mass-printed by mechanical means. Quite a few of us can probably print better than AA
could - we've got better papers and a bigger toolbox of tricks (some of which he taught us!). But not
many people have his poetic sensibility too. There is a lot more to his finished images than just "grand
landscapes" or outdoor "romanticism", to employ a nonsense term favored by mouldy urban critics of
his style.