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Dec 4, 2020 11:05:31   #
joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois
 
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.

I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc

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Dec 4, 2020 11:14:31   #
RiJoRi Loc: Sandy Ridge, NC
 
I like some of his photos, others I don't. It's a matter of taste, I think.

It probably comes down to, Was HE happy with his photos?

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Dec 4, 2020 11:32:29   #
R.G. Loc: Scotland
 
Some contemporary photographers produce good stuff only because they can sit on the shoulders of the giants that came before them. And they will have had a variety of tried-and-tested techniques and styles to be inspired by. The artistic pioneers on the other hand were very much on their own and had to come up with their own insights and inspirations.

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Dec 4, 2020 11:40:01   #
Wallen Loc: Middle Earth
 
joer wrote:
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.
I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc


I'm sure excellent marketing is a major part of the equation just like the majority of modern art. But we can not remove the fact that his style and techniques was at new during his time so it was vogue.

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Dec 4, 2020 11:40:11   #
JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco
 
joer wrote:
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.

I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc


I don't think viewing low res digital reproductions of Adams' photos is a very good way to judge him. If they were looking at large original prints the results might be different. His exquisite printing is an integral part of his work.

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Dec 4, 2020 11:42:21   #
larryepage Loc: North Texas area
 
joer wrote:
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.

I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc


Mr. Adams's photographs are impressive to me because they are artistically interesting and technically impeccable. Theh subject matter is almost always worth some time to consider, and the images are always properly focused and contain a full range of tonal values (and not just chalky white and sooty black). Any special treatments, whether at exposure (tilts, shifts) or printing (dodging, burning) contribute to the image rather than detracting from it.

In short, they show both thought and heart.

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Dec 4, 2020 11:52:14   #
Lynn 1509 Loc: Northern Illinois
 
joer wrote:
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.

I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc


Hi Joe. I'm an Adams fan in that he mastered the medium. His zone system I really liked and used. Never been to his exhibit, but do have 2 or 3 large books of his photos. Some of his photos I really like, some I wouldn't even bother to print. With photography being a subjective process, every one is an expert, in their own mind. I happen to believe the fame of almost every creative person is developed and sold by experts after the death of the creative person. So I guess I agree with you, his skill was mighty, his vision was keen, his gift to photography wonderful, and his fame created by highly paid marketing people. Lynn

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Dec 4, 2020 11:57:08   #
Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
 
joer wrote:
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.

I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc


A video on a computer is no substitute for the real thing. An over-sized coffee table book comes really close, especially if he was involved in the printing - his side hustle was pioneering printing methods that would bring out the best in his images. The video, however, does highlight the reality that many current art critics have no clue as to what makes a great or memorable image - they are talking about contrast, "story" composition, gear, etc etc etc etc -the only things that they can actually relate to. They fail to recognize the concept of context, along with a lot of other things. This is silly. . .

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Dec 4, 2020 12:15:49   #
BebuLamar
 
I don't like some of his famous photos but I like many of his photos.

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Dec 5, 2020 09:59:54   #
tcthome Loc: NJ
 
joer wrote:
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.

I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc


I get what your saying & everybody has different taste when it comes to different types of art. Like going into an art gallery & here what some people see when viewing a painting, etc. You also have to look at the tech that was available to work with back then. A lot of his success had to do with the majestic landscapes & knowing how to work the full tonal ranges. Your not going to far in any type of business without some type of marketing.

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Dec 5, 2020 11:15:43   #
Tjohn Loc: Inverness, FL formerly Arivaca, AZ
 
That was fascinating. What I learned is personal preference rules when context is not present. Although I am not impressed with some of Adams's work I can relate to much of it more because it is more personal to me than to the three 'critics', particularly the geomorphology in Adams's landscape images.

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Dec 5, 2020 12:58:11   #
One Rude Dawg Loc: Athol, ID
 
joer wrote:
Would you be impressed by an Ansel Adams' photographs if you didn't know it was taken by him.

I have seen Ansel's exhibit and admit I liked some of his photo's but I think his persona is a product of excellent marketing more than anything else.

Watch this video and perhaps you will agree.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPKeb40Qrc


Hyp works wonders.

Reply
Dec 6, 2020 13:10:59   #
via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP
 
I assume these young men are known in some way as decent photographers, although I am not familiar with their work. So, I can only assume they have some knowledge of what they are looking at when they see an image but they are also young and, obviously, still learning. I'm not sure how much they understand about tone in an image. Oddly, I've wanted to do this same thing to someone! Adams did, like the rest of us, good work and not so good work but he also did great work. I have one book with his public domain images, not created by any of his trusts, that actually have some of the worst photos I've ever seen! He took thousands of images and some are held in trust but many are in the public domain as they were paid for by the government. His work in his day was way beyond what was then being done and his understanding of images, both compositional and technical, was unheard of at that time. He was a technical genius. One thing that helped him to rise up in the photography world was that he got a benefactor in 1927 by the name of Albert Bender. Bender began to push Ansel's work among the wealthy people that he knew. But Ansel worked hard for his success and, for him, photography (and Yosemite National Park) was the #1 thing in his life, to the detriment of his family life. His work was not actually widely marketed until he was older, I can't recall exactly, but I think in his 60s. Finances were a struggle for him for most of his life as he was dedicated to the furtherance of photography through education and public knowledge. He got his income from commercial jobs. I have seen and held photos that he created (a friend has one of his portfolios) and the detail and technical aspects of the photographs were amazing, it was a real treat for me to have that experience. I'm a fan of Adams and have more than 15 books on his life and work. His vision for an image was incredible.

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