Ansel Adams Half Dome, Evening, From Olmsted Point (c. 1959)
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- Thread starter Sirius Glass
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Bait and switch. I think AA, artist and Sierra Club stalwart, would have hated paywalls.
OP
OP
I am starting to think that Adam's work is not ageing so well.
Look at an actual print by the master, you will change your mind.
My personal preference is for Adams's earlier printing--somewhat less dramatic, but, to my eyes, more realistic.
Andrew O'Neill
Moderator
I've never seen this one before. Very interesting perspective.
Great image, and as vocemana mentioned, not overly dramatic. It expresses the light that was there very well. The light on the face of Half Dome is wonderful -- especially knowing the path it is taking thru Yosemite Valley to reach the face. From my memory of seeing Half Dome from Olmsted Point, AA must have used a long lens.
I will try to get out more.
The McMichael Gallery had an exhibit with many prints, including 47 of his prints of the museum series, in 2013. If i recall there was also several prints of moonrise done at different stages of his life. And of course we all go too New York to see what is on offer there, eh?
Pretty cool that they're still making darkroom prints from these negatives, and the price ain't bad.
I was surprised to see that too. It would obviously be nicer to have a print made by Adams himself but these do seem to be a great way to get a print from the original negative at a reasonable price.
The SEPs are printed by Alan Ross, one of AA's assistants...he has been printing them for decades.
I have to admit that I'm not a big AA fan - I prefer the work of the other landscape photographer who shares the same last name - but these prints seem like a great deal.
Yeah, ditto. They're both great, but AA was kind of doing HDR before HDR existed, and that (just for me) means some of the work hasn't aged as well as it could have. He had a hell of an eye, though.
Could someone define "Not aging well" in this context?
Much of his work is classic and damned near perfect landscape photography, more or less true to the scene and natural looking (although we all know how hard he worked in the darkroom to make that happen).
And some of his work looks more like DSLR/HDR photography with a little too much time spent in Photoshop to my eye, and those images haven't aged well. For me. Not everyone.
I think that's part of the issue for me as well. I prefer photographs that show the world as it is, not as the photographer wishes it would be. I guess that's why I have an affinity for many of the New Topographics photographers.
AA fans might find this recent video interesting:
Thanks for the explanation - I tend to hear the term more for political/social changes causing work to have not aged well. Some early Beatle pop songs are that way....And some of his work looks more like DSLR/HDR photography with a little too much time spent in Photoshop to my eye, and those images haven't aged well. For me. Not everyone.
But that is why I love the AA image of Half Dome from Olmsted Point -- it is ageless. That is what one might see and experience if one was there...and knew what to look for.
This could well be true for most of the imagery of the unsettled areas of the 19th century, that were being promoted by the railways at the time. The Canadian railways hired several photographers over 100 years and produced similar imagery as Adams did in his expedition to the Canadian Rockies in 1928 (his only outside US epedition) and there locations look substantially like today if you knew what to look for.
I think the point is that photographs are of their time, equipment wise, chemistry wise, substrate wise and style wise. you can be a superstar and then society moves on to appreciate a different look and sees past imagery with a bit more detachment within a wider context. Karsh and portraiture is a good example of this.
If you think this is timeless then you might think Aams pictorialist images have not aged well.
I like this image too, and wasn't familiar with it before today so thanks to Sirius for sharing.
Ansel Adams was a great Pioneer but is maybe overrated as an artist and became kind of a guru for some people. Personally i quite like his work but more from a historical point of view. Great printer though. But i guess common sense is otherwise..
Absolutely illuminating!
The dangers of becoming a household name! I am fine with just 'artist' -- without worrying about good better or best...or a way of rating artists. His affect of photography does not seem to be over-rated, though obviously not universally appreciated.
cowanw -- why would I think AA's pictorial work has not aged well? I do not even think the term applies here.
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