MAXD

Moonrise differs from most of Adam's work in that it was a "found picture" rather than a made picture. Here's a link talking about it. Notice at the end how bad the original image was. He often said the taking of a photograph was the score and the printing was the performance. Couldn't be truer here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_Ar5ZPuKUM&t=399s

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

If you saw the actual print, not this badly reproduced one, then you would feel differently.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Is this sacrilegious? I used more of the upper 50% of the pic than I thought I would in my suggested cropping. The moon is still too centered but it was more centered than that before.

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

I think that is sagebrush, not sheep...

srt101fan

Your last sentence makes me wonder about your view of UHH. I'd like to think of this forum as a collection of rooms where there are conversations going on. You pop into one and converse, as in 'exchange ideas'.

Of course it "matters what any of us think about it".....no?

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

That comment was intended to be very specific to this question. The intended display format of the photographs that Adams was making was very different from a framed print on a wall. It dictated where light and dark areas were as well as where the horizon was placed. I did not know all of the details until Wallen's question made me check it out. The whole idea of his being in the high desert of New Mexico was something of an anomaly (although not completely unheard of). And yes, I could just spill the beans, but there is much more value in folks researching on their own.

Bottom line is that we can discuss images based on formulaic norms, but that can take us astray when we are talking about non-formulaic people doing non-formulaic things. My observation is that the single biggest thing that the majority of folks can do here to make their photographs more interesting is to break out of the prescribed boxes (or at least push the sides out a little bit).

I am fortunate to have people helping me do just that, and it's made photographic life much more fun. For example, as it turns out, Adams actually followed many of the rules of composition in tje photograph under discussion. It just doesn't look like it, because we aren't viewing the image the way it was intended to be viewed.

alberio Loc: Casa Grande AZ

Ahh, that answers that. Thanks for the info.

hoosier500

Absolutely riveting discussion! And, unlike too many forums, conducted in a civilized manner.

Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley

The OP wanted comments about this image as if someone seeing it for the 1st time and didn't know who took it.
To be honest this image really doesn't do much for me. I just don't find it that interesting and would not have it hanging on my wall. I like some of Adam's other images much better.
To me, it looks kind of overprocessed and doesn't have a defining point of interest.
There, I stated my sacrilegious opinion, let the arrows fly.

will

Timmers Loc: San Antonio Texas.

How can a person who has experience with landscape photography grasp that the image is a great image? Moon Rise violates one of the first principles of landscape photography, that is, almost anyone can make a decent image of a sunset period landscape, most of the truly inspired landscape images are made at sun rise.

There is a much more important issue here, the title of this art work is that as usual it is not complete. The real work is titled Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico, 1941. We also know that the full title needs to include in the end of the title "April 30th/November 1st, 1941" as part of it's title. This is a critical work, not just because Ansel Adams is the artist, but because the title is telling us that the scene is the transition from a sun setting day into night. And not just any date but this is what any Pagan will tell you this is Samhain, the time when the veil between the two world is most thin. This date marks the transition for the US when the country will enter World War Two (in but a few weeks). There is magic here, when the US will for ever change from the country it was into the modern world that it must become.

So, I think the question that is being posed is rather sophomoric. It is a kin to ask if Leonardo's portrait Mona Lisa is just a portrait of a woman? Or Duchamp's The Great Glass is just an erotic image? Of course they are but they are so much more that to pander to such a shallow observation has no real point other than to be pedestrian in thought.

srt101fan

The OP's question is anything but "sophomoric"!

Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley

I quite agree. the OP was asking for honest opinions about this image as if someone didn't know who made it.
Just because someone's opinion doesn't match yours, doesn't mean it is sophomoric.
I find it was a good thought-raising question.

will

AzatVi Loc: AZ

Ansel took an image with his camera, the picture he saw in his mind was created in the darkroom.

flyboy61 Loc: The Great American Desert

To me, it is a "grab shot" performed with an ungainly, heavy and awkward bit of equipment, operated by by"one who knew".
During my military service as a photographer, and later in college, I struggled with his "Zone System" in photo classes...not to mention the Linhof View Camera the teacher chose me to carry!
Nevertheless, I enjoy seeing Ansel's photos.
I once read an account of his struggles With printing. He had a "photo shack" (no running water!) that he could only use during the dark phases of the moon, and only at night, due to the non-light proof nature of the board and batten construction.
The gyrations he went through to produce his photos! I presume some time later, he got himself a more convenient darkroom.
The "greats" are there for us to be inspired by and attempt to emulate...for me, it is Ansel Adams and trying to produce black and white flesh tones that Peter Gowland did so well!
But...as was asked, I think the picture is good, but there others I like better.

AzatVi Loc: AZ

Ansel trained to be a concert pianist, I had they pleasure of hearing him play at their home in Carmel.