From: Cactus Cowboy (cactus@tritel.net)
Date: 09/07/02-09:10:46 PM Z
----- Original Message -----
From: "Judy Seigel" <jseigel@panix.com>
To: <alt-photo-process-l@skyway.usask.ca>
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 2:51 PM
Subject: Re: "CALENDAR ARTIST"
(snip)
> Ansel Adams takes something generally accepted as beautiful -- trees,
> mountains, bodies of water, moonrise, et al, and photographs it. Let's say
> he optimizes, tweaks, and masterfully renders it so we can admire, even be
> thrilled by, the picture and/or the scene it evokes -- maybe even
> experience it as "sublime." But he's not telling us one thing we don't
> already know. Or not any Adams I've seen.
Ascribing your personal biases and opinions to the general public is wrong.
You're not the spokesman for "us". Perhaps you should have written: But
he's not telling _ME_one thing_I_don't already know. Right??
I can't agree that nature subjects are "generally accepted as beautiful".
After all, there are people who consider landscape photography to be
"boring". My teenage niece, when being "forced" to visit Yellowstone
National Park two years ago, declared "I hate nature".
There's far more to landscape photography than "tweaks" in the darkroom as
suggested in your snide dismissal of Adam's life work. Have you ever
carried a 50 lb. backpack full of camera gear through 75 miles of
wilderness? Have you ever watched the sunrise from a mountaintop? Ever
stomped your feet repeatedly to prevent frostbite? Ever scrambled up rock
ledges to escape a raging flash flood roaring down a canyon? Ever laid on
your back to watch shooting stars as you swatted mosquitoes? Pulled cactus
spines out of your sleeping bag? Listened to coyotes singing? I have. A
world does exist beyond the west bank of the Hudson River. Too bad you've
apparently experienced it only on calendar pages (without really
appreciating it).
>
> In contrast, Minor White (who was as I recall mentioned in same breath),
> starts with nothing, what you might not even notice, and turns it into the
> sublime. I suppose he has some humddrum pictures, no one can sustain that
> level unbroken, but that's his *vision* -- finding sublime in the mundane,
> even invisible. I think in particular of a worn work glove on the street
> next to an open manhole, with (as I recall, haven't seen it lately) an
> arrow painted on the street, pointing to either hole or glove (maybe he
> moved the glove?). Another iconic White is the shadow of curtain on wall
> under an open window -- nothing really -- but a revelation.
>
> There may be mastery, beauty, et al, in Adams, but no revelation. We KNOW
> nature is grand (until ruined anyway, another kind of picturesque, &
> another topic). We didn't know about that glove or shadow until White
> found them, showed us.
>
> "Calendar art" in the sense I used the term celebrates the beautiful,
> which is harmless enough. But the reflexive accolades to Adams are I
> believe due more to his subject than his *vision.* Someone along the way
> seemed to think I was calling Adams "kitsch" -- not at all: kitsch is
> something else. But Minor White is *creative* -- in seeing/creating
> "manifestations", making something out of nothing by putting it together
> in his head. Even in a calendar, these wouldn't be "calendar art."
Compare White's "Scissor and Thread, Navajo Indian Reservation, 1960" with
Adam's "Rock Veins, Tenaya Lake, Yosemite National Park, c. 1935". Compare
Adam's "Foam, Mirror Lake, Yosemite Valley, c. 1960" with White's frost
photos from the late 1950's. Look at White's "Song Without Words" series
and then check out Adam's landscapes from the same area (Pacific coast of
California). White's "Ivy, Portland, Oregon, 1964" vs. Adam's "Nasturtiums,
Big Sur California, 1954". Sure, these guys each had their own style and
personality, but the similarities are uncanny at times. IMO, they're both
excellent, creative photographers. Hit the books and study... I think
you're missing a lot.
I can only guess that Adam's great success and popularity is making you
jealous, hence your 'put down' attitude towards his work.
Best regards,
Dave in Wyoming
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