ANSEL ADAMS IN COLOR
by Ansel Adams
Category: Photography
Format: HARDCOVER BOOK
Publish Date: 10/21/2009
Price: $35.00/$43.00
ISBN: 9780316056410
Pages: 168
ABOUT THE BOOK
Toward the end of his life Ansel Adams wrote, “People are skeptical about my thoughts on color. I do not blame them, as I have protested it and have not shown color pictures. I feel the urge now and only wish I was sixty years younger!”Adams began to photograph in color in the mid-1930s. He did significant personal or “creative” photography in color, and his distinctive visualization of a scene and technical mastery is immediately evident in his color photographs. Overall, he made nearly 3,500 color images, but only a small fraction have ever been published.
Adams thought seriously about publishing his color images but the task was not accomplished during his lifetime. The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust–with advice and counsel from John Szarkowski, former Director of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art; David Travis, Curator of Photographs at the Art Institute of Chicago; and James Enyeart, former Director of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House–asked the distinguished master photographer Harry Callahan to select the best of Adams’ color work for publication in this book.
Accompanied by an introductory essay by Enyeart, and a selection of Adams’ fascinating, often contradictory writings on color photography, these magnificent color images add a new dimension to Adams’ enduring legacy.
MY THOUGHTS
I’ve always loved the romantic feel of Ansel Adams’ photographs and I’ve associated his work only with the sweeping panoramas in black and white that I was used to. I guess that’s why I had a hard time wrapping the name Ansel Adams with these photographs. I mean they are beautiful landscapes as always, don’t get me wrong. I just was not feeling that emotion… the romance, the loftiness, the emotions evoked by the old black and white photographs. I guess there must be some kind of an emotional learning that takes place when we associate certain images with certain names or events or places, and I am stuck there. I couldn’t get my feelings to learn that this too is Ansel Adams. The same photographer who never failed to evoke that feeling in me… My eyes were not buying it.
Nevertheless, even without the emotional accompaniment, I still enjoyed looking through this book and I’m sure this would make a great gift for someone who loves photography. Whether in color or not, Ansel Adams has the eye for photography like no one else. As I read through Adams’ writings and ideas, I learned more about the man and the artist and I think I am slowly absorbing his thoughts in color and my mind’s eye is slowly learning that this guy is not so bad in color either!
Hachette Book Group provided a free copy of this book for review.
Tags: book reviews, Hachette Books, Photography
