Re: American Experience: Ansel Adams

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From: Joe Portale (jportale@gci-net.com)
Date: 04/23/02-08:45:51 AM Z


I have been watching this thread with a bit of amused interest. The only
thing that I wish to add is to punctuate what Steve said about Ansel being a
nice guy.

True story: When I was an undergrad, I was sharing a bottle of cheap wine,
well..actually several, with a few of my compadres from class. Like all
undergrads, we were fixing all the problems of the universe. Somehow, we
ended up in talking about the Zone System as proposed by Adams versus the
Minor White technique. The debate went on for a time and was stuck on some
insignificant point. Someone decided to call Ansel himself to settle the
argument. We all laughed when he called information to get Ansel's phone
number in Carmel. We were even more amused when he dialed the number. We
were flattened when Ansel actually came to the phone. We all listened in on
another phone in the apartment. Adams was patient, kind and answered all the
questions without one bit of condescension in his voice. He sounded like a
patient grandfather. When all the questions were answered he shifted to his
own, where were we attending school, is so and so still teaching there? Oh
he is, tell him I said hello, when were we expected to graduate, what are
planning to do when we get out and what floored me the most, "If you kids
are ever in Carmel, stop on by and say hello".

We tried this later with other big "names" and never received a drop of
patience for our youthful nonsense from any of them. Fred Picker did spend a
little time with us on the phone once, but the irritation in his voice was
loud and clear. Avedon hung up on us, Duane Michaels would not come to the
phone.

I agree with Steve, Adams was a generally true nice guy.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Shapiro" <sgshiya@redshift.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
Sent: Monday, April 22, 2002 5:04 PM
Subject: Re: American Experience: Ansel Adams

----- Original Message -----
From: "Pam Niedermayer" <pam@pinehill.com>
Subject: Re: American Experience: Ansel Adams

> Even worse was his editor, who postulated that each and every photo
> had a big, implied American flag, and that this was the appeal to
> Americans. Geesh.
>
> Pam
>

I don't know why the Geesh! The program was called the American Experience
and was meant to honor great Americans.

You wanna hear the dirt behind the production? Come on down to
Carmel/Monterey and hang out in the cafés.

Bottom line: Ansel Adams was a very nice guy.

S. Shapiro, Carmel


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