Ansel Adams - Yosemite Valley
Photo credit: Ansel Adams
I'm a big fan of Ansel Adams, especially the finished prints, some of which I've had the pleasure of seeing in the flesh. Probably among the most beautiful graphic objects I've come across.
I've never been to Yosemite valley, but if the name crops up I immediately associate it with Adams' images, and unless I remind myself, I'll imagine that is exactly what it looks like. I'd be disappointed if I ever went of course because the images are painstakingly rendered according to the photographers vision, quite apart from waiting or knowing at exactly what time to get the lighting and atmospherics right. And of course it wouldn't be in B+W
So again, there is something illusory in these photos. Now for me that's ok, because I understand them, and Adams other work, as his response to what he saw, and not an attempt to mirror reality. It might seem to be straining a point with photographs which are not really intended to be documentary, but think about other aspects of the world that we know only through photographs - things which we may accept as true knowledge.
J'aime beaucoup les contrastes et l'intensité dramatique sur cette photo, car N&B peut être est-ce beau mais il ne faut pas que cela soit plat et fade.
Noir et blanc peut-être nécessaire, mais il n'est pas suffisant.
(Pour rester dans les mathématiques, chères à Chuckeroon en ce moment)
Tu pourrais aller au Yosemite Park, Richard, je en crois pas que tu serais déçu, tu aurais la grandeur du site, sa vie, que ne peut rendre une photo même la meilleure du monde faite par le meilleur photographe.
In a sense this is why I prefer B+W - it's easier.
You are correct about why he used B&W, but only partly. I studied with him and worked for him for several years in the early '70's. He viewed all photography as an abstraction. Color didn't go far enough in that direction for him, although he did greatly admire Eliot Porter's and Ernst Haas's work. The real attraction of B&W for him was the luminosity of the prints and the great tonal range. That's what he talked about over and over. The luminosity.
I didn't mean that Yosemite wouldn't be grander - I mean that it would come as a surprise, because I had come to think that Adams pictures were Yosemite.
Couldn't agree more about B+W - it can capture light in a way that colour just dilutes. Not saying that colour is bad - just need to use it in a different way. Also there are prints and prints. Having seen Adams work in Edinburgh a few years ago alongside another photographers B+W landscapes - they definitely have something special. And of course the screen is a very very poor substitute.
Thanks again