Adams, A: Examples The Making of 40 Photographs

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wlewisiii

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I finally found a copy of this when, much to my wallets dismay, I had to park my truck for the night across the street from a Barnes & Noble bookstore ;) I'd been wanting it for awhile & it's everything I'd hoped it would be.

In it, Ansel Adams presents 40 of his famous & not so famous images. I'm especially fond of some of the less well known ones presented in the book & it also makes it very apparent that he was quite as at home with a Hassleblad, a Contax I & II & various LF view cameras. Personally I found his comments on why he chose his camera position and lens focal length to be the most valuable to me at this point.

It's valuable for the technical discussion, even if you don't particularily care for Mr. Adams work.

William
 
I never did care much for Ansel Adams' work... until I saw more of it in a Sotheby's catalogue. I saw photos I had never seen before, and there was some explanation with them as well. Very enlightening.

Same for father and son Weston.
 
Another interesting AA book is "Manzanar," photos he made in 1943 of the internment camp near Bishop. which is a development of the book "Born Free and Equal" he published in 1944. Not the usual AA material, but the usual quality. The originals from the shoot are in the Library of Congress, so prints may be available.
 
Ansel photos live

Ansel photos live

I went to see an exhibit of his photos at the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas. After viewing the exhibit, I went thru the gift shop. I grabbed a book and compared the book reproduction against what I had just seen. What an eye opening experience. The shades of blacks in the photos in the exhibit were a chalky gray in the books. If you get a chance, see photos in an exhibit.

Eric
 
I lived in Monterey, CA, for awhile and got to see some of AA prints at the Weston Gallery and at the Lodge, Pebble Beach. His prints are truly remarkable. Whether one likes his work or not, Mr Adams set the standard held to this day on B&W printing. He was one of photography's great educators.
 
Joe Brugger said:
Another interesting AA book is "Manzanar," photos he made in 1943 of the internment camp near Bishop. which is a development of the book "Born Free and Equal" he published in 1944. Not the usual AA material, but the usual quality. The originals from the shoot are in the Library of Congress, so prints may be available.
Click to expand...

Plus he actually used an RF for this (a Contax).

Roland.
 
'Examples' is a really great book. One of the most important books that I've learned from. The ideas presented clearly here range so widely from one's vision to the technical that I return to this book again and again- even as I've left my view camera for the time being.

The other great AA book is the last version of 'The Print' (The Little-Brown black hardcover, currently available in a green softcover version I think).This one really taught me to print better than any other or anyone. I lived this book for years after I got out of school, really dove into the whole thing and I'm a much better printer for it. Even in these days of VC papers the techniques still hold usefulness- ones I use a lot.
 
One of the best AA books I have ever seen is the rare "Images - 1923-1974" published by the New York Graphical Society. The first edition of this book is a spectacular printing accomplishment. It is a huge and heavy book. This book not only contains many of his famous landscape shots, but also shots of Weston and other Adams work that does not get the attention his lanscape work does.

O.C.
 
Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams

Maybe 2 or 3 years ago or so we went to Dominican College for an exhibit of Mr Adam's photos taken when he was an instructor at the college. These were portraits and informal photos of the students around the campus, very fine photos,indeed. Later, he wrote that even though he enjoyed taking the pictures, portraits were not his forte´. His next examples were landscapes around that area of Marin County. Early works which we all know now culminated in his masterpieces in later years.I must say that this is one of my personal favorites of his wonderful work.I don't remember now what equipment he used for these.
 
It's worth looking on Abe Books (www.abebooks.com) for all photo books, especially older ones. They aggregate the stock of used and new book dealers all around the world and you can usually find these books in wonderful condition at good prices. For example, I just bought a copies of both The "Images" book and "40 Photos" book in hard copy - all 1st editions in hard cover for pretty reasonable prices. The "40 photos" was just $30, just $3.60 more than Amazon is asking for a new paperback edition. Happy hunting - now you can get attacks of book BAS along with camera GAS. :)

/T
 
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