Early Footage of Ansel Adams At Work

Fragomeni · Feb 24, 2013

Thought many of you would like to see this if you hadn't seen it already. Short early documentary on Ansel with commentary from him about his practices and views on photography. Plus some footage of Ansel playing the piano. Enjoy!

Ansel Adams, Photographer (1958) - Narrated by Baumont Newhall

Enjoy.

cjbecker · Feb 24, 2013

Very interesting, it's cool to see him working in the field/darkroom.

I'm going to setup my on/off for my lights like that.

Fragomeni · Feb 24, 2013

Yea, I hadn't seen this footage before so I definitely thought it was worth sharing. He's a little younger in this then in most of the docs that I've seen him featured in.

TBN · Feb 24, 2013

Very interesting indeed.. Such a multi-talented person.

Thanks for sharing!

NB: The piece of music, playing in the end; can anyone tell me who the composer is ? I've heard it thousand of times, but I just can't remember. )

Molli · Feb 24, 2013

Hi TBN, it's Johann Sebastian Bach's Prelude in C Major. It's lovely, isn't it?

Francesco, thanks for sharing the video. I enjoyed seeing and hearing both parts of Mr. Adam's world brought together like that.

cjbecker · Feb 24, 2013

I was actually thinking the same thing about the end music.

Chuck_P · Feb 24, 2013

It was good to see, thanks for sharing, I love that old documentary footage of any photographer showing their ways. Very interesting to see how he handled the shadows of the rocks in the beach scene, anticipating added flare density in the low zones to aid in the printing stage following a huge reduction in exposure (4 stops) from the metered value. Very contrasty scene, a 4 stop reduction in exposure for a Zone I shadow placement deep on the toe that still resulted in the important high value falling on Zone IX, requiring N-1 development to normalize the negative contrast.

Thanks again, that was cool..........

TBN · Feb 24, 2013

Ahh!!.. Yes, of course it is J.S. Bach !! (my middle name is the same as his lastname)
It is indeed a very lovely piece of music.

Thank you, Molli !

jovo · Feb 24, 2013

Wonderful footage...a real time capsule. AA had a beautiful legato sound as a pianist. The Scriabin and Bach are very well played. It's also interesting that the trio music during the film is by Don Worth who studied at Julliard and Manhattan School of Music and was AA's photography assistant for several years. His photography is splendid as well as his music.

As a musician and photographer, I'm always fascinated that the two art forms seem to go so well together and inhabit so many fine artists. Cool!!!

TheToadMen · Feb 24, 2013

Nice to see this piece of photographic history: thank you!!
I thought I recognized my Kodak Commercial Ektar 10" lens (at 4 minutes) on his 8x10" camera. I know Ansel Adams used one of these.
That's why I bought it when it crossed my path. I don't have a 8x10" camera yet to use it on, though....

Molli · Feb 24, 2013

TBN said:
Ahh!!.. Yes, of course it is J.S. Bach !! (my middle name is the same as his lastname)
It is indeed a very lovely piece of music.

Thank you, Molli !

Any chance we could go back in time and have your parents teach my parents how the naming of a child should be done? That's a great middle name!

panchro-press · Feb 24, 2013

Thank you very much!

I had never seen this film before; nor had I ever heard AA playing the piano.

Dave

-30-

Toffle · Feb 24, 2013

Nice to see... especially nice to see a humble CC-400 (or 401) in his collection. No bells and whistles, but a solid, reliable camera.
A. A. is often a favourite target for criticism for one reason or another, but there is no denying his technical mastery. His dodging and burning of the seaside picture was (aptly) like a conductor coaxing music from an orchestra.

Did they actually say he could make "hundreds of fine prints in a day"? That, in itself is pretty amazing.

Cheers,
Tom

Ricardo Miranda · Feb 24, 2013

Thanks! A very nice documentary!

Newt_on_Swings · Feb 24, 2013

I wonder how much that portfolio of prints that they showed is worth now...

Also kinda interesting to see he developed and fixed the prints with bare hands, no tongs or gloves.

Early Footage of Ansel Adams At Work

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