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Title: Ansel Adams at 100 by John Szarkowski, Ansel Adams ISBN: 0-8212-2515-4 Publisher: Bulfinch Pub. Date: 02 August, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $150.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 (18 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A masterful restrospective
Comment: If you can only afford to buy one photo book / coffee table book this year . . . this is the book to buy. Period. This oversized book is beautifully reproduced and lovingly bound to last for ages; a commemorative print, not available elsewhere, is reproduced as a separate plate -- suitable for framing, which is a nice touch: Who among us can afford an original Ansel Adams photograph? As beautiful as this is as an example of book-making, its real value lies in the selection of photos.
Of course, no two photographers will ever agree as to what photos should have been included in this massive retrospective -- outside of the obvious ones like "Moonrise Over Hernandez County" -- but every photographer who looks at this book should find inspiration in Ansel's inimitable "eye" that saw, and captured on film, the ordinary and transformed it into the extraordinary; a photographer who saw the extraordinary and transformed it into the sublime.
As for the text: I think an academic perspective is certainly appropriate for such a retrospective, but I would dearly have loved to see a piece by, say, Joseph Holmes (NATURAL LIGHT--a gorgeous collection of photos) or another photographer to give it, so to speak, a "through the lens" perspective.
Although there are other coffee-table sized books published of Ansel Adams's work, this one sets a high watermark and, as such, should find a permanent place in the library of every serious photographer, aspiring photographer, or anyone with a sense of beauty who can appreciate the rare and wonderful talent that is Ansel Adams.
Rating: 5
Summary: Quality Show Catalog of Adams' Nature and Landscape Images
Comment: This book is the official catalog for the traveling show in honor of Ansel Adams' birth in 1902 that just opened in San Francisco and will travel through Chicago, London, Berlin, and Los Angeles before closing in New York late in 2003. I cannot remember a finer catalog for a photography show.
The show's images were selected by John Szarkowski who is the director emeritus of the Department of Photography at the Museum of Modern Art. In selecting images for the show, he emphasized both what he thought was Ansel Adams' finest work, and his work that looked best in printed form. So the images provide room for an outstanding reproduction, and that's just what the book's publishers have provided.
The edition itself comes linen bound and in a matching linen slip cover. The pages are all of the highest quality heavy cover stock. The tritone printing is exquisite, limited only by the negatives and the current state-of-the art in printing. There is also a superb design. The works are sized to be in proportion to each others' negatives. Where images play off of each other, they are placed next to one another or on facing pages. Where that sort of conversation isn't possible, you see one image per two open pages. Unlike most of Ansel Adams' books, this one is on oversized pages so that there is the possibility of seeing the details as Mr. Adams intended them to be seen.
A nice bonus is that each book comes with a frameable tritone 13" X 11" print on heavy cover stock with fascimile signature by Ansel Adams and a blind embossed seal of the Ansel Adams Trust of Aspens, Dawn, Dolores River Canyon, Colorado, 1937 . . . which is also reproduced in the book. It is the image of aspens that you probably know best from Mr. Adams' work.
The essay focuses on two things: (1) The question of whether the photographer brings order to nature (as Edward Weston suggested) or simply sift its out (like gold dust from gravel in a stream) as Ansel Adams seems to have done. (2) A brief biography of Ansel Adams emphasizes his life as an art photographer and his early parallel interest in piano. Since the book is for a show, it would be inappropriate to try to cover much more. I was disappointed, however, that more of Mr. Adams' many letters were not included.
The main drawbacks of this book for most people will be that it is selective and narrow in focus. Many people will mistakenly think that this book is intended to be the ultimate biography and reproduction of his photographs. That work remains to be done. I shiver to think what that will cost us to purchase! You will get a taste of his many different nature and landscape shots, but not all of your old favorites or as many of any type as you would probably like. You will also yearn, if you are like me, for an essay that paid more attention to his efforts in conservation.
Of the 114 plates in the book, I found 27 to be outstanding to an extraordinary degree for my taste. Not surprisingly, seven were from Yosemite, and six from the Sierra Nevadas. A number of others were of mountain scenes. To me, Mr. Adams captures the spiritual connection of mountains, sky, and water in an unusually transcendant way. But his focused works of grass and leaves on water, dead trees, solitary trees, rocks, and sections of rock formations are equally intriguing and spiritual, just in a different way. Space does not permit me to cite all of these images by name. I was pleasantly surprised to see how many of my favorites in the book were new to me, even though I have read every Ansel Adams book I can find.
The exquisite details in these works overwhelm you with the sense of how much complexity is woven together into our natural world, and how seldom we take a moment to absorb every iota of it.
After you finish enjoying this fine work, I suggest that you think about where you find spirituality in your life. What places? What times? How do you capture and keep that feeling with you?
Touch God in new ways . . . all the time.
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautiful Photos with a Hidden Meaning
Comment: This is a superb book. I was first introduced to Ansel Adams at work. While waiting to give my bi-weekly status reports to the President I reported to, there were photographic prints of Adams' work on the walls. The clean look to the photos calmed me before my meetings. In picking up "Ansel Adams at 100", I am reminded of a calm vision of beauty, in both words and pictures. Szarkowski's book is artistic and beautiful. First of all the book is well crafted with high quality pages that yield the most amazing pictures of the Adams collections. Secondly, the photos, especially of Yosemite, show an almost spiritual bent to them. I found myself looking carefully at both the sweeping measures of the photos, the granduer, and suprisingly, the sweet simplicity of a tree, a mountain, a leaf. It is Adams' mastery of focusing on the simple yet at the same time utterly complicated subject that makes you appreciate his clarity. Thirdly, the excerpts of Adams' vision and life lend to the book in giving the reader another overview of this work and life---especially how that led to his interests, his almost driven focus. All in all, it's a beautiful book, richly photographed and written, and elegant in both presentation and subject. Well worth the price.
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Title: Examples : The Making of 40 Photographs by Ansel Adams ISBN: 082121750X Publisher: Bulfinch Pub. Date: 30 May, 1989 List Price(USD): $37.50 |
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Title:Ansel Adams - A Documentary Film ASIN: B00007G1YJ Publisher: Warner Home Video Pub. Date: 14 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $17.38 |
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Title: Edward Weston: A Legacy by Jonathan Spaulding, Jessica Todd Smith, Jennifer A. Watts ISBN: 1858942063 Publisher: Merrell Publishers Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $75.00 |
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Title: Portfolios of Ansel Adams by Ansel Adams ISBN: 0821207237 Publisher: Bulfinch Pub. Date: 30 October, 1977 List Price(USD): $45.00 |
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Title: Ansel Adams 2004 Wall Calendar by Ansel Adams ISBN: 0821228382 Publisher: Bulfinch Pub. Date: 01 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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