Ansel Adams and 35mm

There is a great portrait of Stieglitz coming downstairs made by Mr. Adams with a Contax I that he was given by Zeiss. There are a number of other great bits he did in that same time frame with that camera (a great shot of Ms. O'Keefe for example) but these bits remain far less well known than his (in?)famous large format landscapes.

If you want to see something different than the usual St. Ansel, look up his book on Manzanar... His portrait of Joyce Yukiko Nakamura remains my favorite of his portraits for no special reason. I just like it 🙂

William
 
Yes he did. He used a Contax quite a bit in the 1930s, mainly to photograph friends and aquaintances. There's a famous portrait of Georgia O'Keefe that he took w/ his Contax. He writes about this camera a bit in his autobiography. I don't think he used 35mm for much if any of his professional work, though.
 
Interesting. I did not know that. My favorite picture of his is moonrise over Hernandez. I wonder what he would think about all this digital stuff if he lived.
 
loneranger said:
Interesting. I did not know that. My favorite picture of his is moonrise over Hernandez. I wonder what he would think about all this digital stuff if he lived.
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He is on record as having an open mind and embracing the new. He photographed for a purpose, and chose appropriate tools from what was available. He was much more flexible than I am.
 
The two portraits mentioned above are probably my absolute favourite photos by AA. It came as quite a surprise to go to a large showing of his work and find that I found his landscapes often did little for me. Obviously this is just my opinion but they often seemed almost anodyne. The two portraits however have a real catch, especially the one of Georgia O'Keefe. Another portrait was one of (I think) four children goggling at the camera. Also fantastic! So, yes, he did use 35mm on the odd occasion.

Cheers
Ian
 
Adams went on record that he believed digital imaging was the next step of photographic evolution. He didn't live to see it come to wide market, but I think I read that he was looking forward to easier methods of retouching like painting out power lines.

Ansel Adams wanted Photoshop before there was Photoshop.
 
Leighgion said:
Adams went on record that he believed digital imaging was the next step of photographic evolution. He didn't live to see it come to wide market, but I think I read that he was looking forward to easier methods of retouching like painting out power lines.

Ansel Adams wanted Photoshop before there was Photoshop.
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This is the impression I got from watching this interview with him:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWhQGU2RYuM&feature=related
 
loneranger said:
Interesting. I did not know that. My favorite picture of his is moonrise over Hernandez. I wonder what he would think about all this digital stuff if he lived.
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See the quotation in my signature block. 🙂 (From his foreword to my copy of The Negative.)
 
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In his later years he used Hasselblads.
He had given the several Hasselblad kits to his photographic assistant when his health was failing, telling him that he was concerned his gear wouldn't get the proper exercise.

In 1998, the assistant put the gear on ebay with most of the proceeds from the auction going to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
Radio personality Don Imus won the auction with a bid of $100,000.
 
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The Los Angeles Public Library put up images AA shot with 35mm on their web site. Some were good; others were simply dreadful. Seek them out and see for yourself.
 
Good point... my memory appears faulty. The files indicate, for example: File Number S-002-015.13 4x5 withoug details of whether that is neg size or print size. No matter... I'd think these weren't 35mm too.
 
Gumby said:
Good point... my memory appears faulty. The files indicate, for example: File Number S-002-015.13 4x5 withoug details of whether that is neg size or print size. No matter... I'd think these weren't 35mm too.
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Initially I remembered them as 35mm too - that's why I searched for the link to post here.


There was a Huel Howser special on the local PBS station last year about these images. They were done with a Hasselblad.
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Funny, the author of the article calls the negs " 'small' square format". For a moment there I thought Adams was shooting some weird square half frame or a 4x4 😀 Hasselblad makes sense. I didn't know the story of the assistant auctioning the kit for charity. Happy end after all. 🙂


.
 
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ferider said:
As said above, AA's Manzanar's photos were shot with a Contax. "Georgia O'Keeffe and Orville Cox" is probably his most famous 35mm photo. One of his cameras (Contax III + Tessar):

cambooksgn.jpg


Roland.
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This http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/anseladams/ is a good place to learn more about it. I like that you can see scans of the prints and the negatives from the work as it shows more clearly than usual his work process.

I believe that at least some of the Manzinar work was shot on a GI Speed Graphic, given the aspect ratio in the scans at that site.

William
 
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Adams also used the Contarex, a camera he praised greatly. In his final years he also used a Leica R4. Of course his most well known images were with LF and the Hasselblad. 35mm roll film and Zone developing just don't go together that easily unless you can manage to change out films mid roll.
 
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