Re: "CALENDAR ARTIST"

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From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 09/11/02-12:22:56 AM Z


On Tue, 10 Sep 2002, John Campbell wrote:

> AA is a Calendar Artist--in the sense that more of the masses experience his
> work in that way. I would dare say, although I would happily be wrong, that
> Amazon.com (etc.,etc.,etc.,) sells more of his 12-months-flat editions than
> anything else bearing his mark. And (here's a more tender point) most all of
> what's lately been published under his moniker is post-mortem for someone
> else's profit. Note: The Print; The Negative; etc., and the posthumous 100
> Years.

Actually John, you omit one of the most egregious afterworks... The
so-called "Ansel Adams Guide to Photography, Book 2," from Little Brown,
by John Schaefer, was about "alternative photography," which of course
was not Ansel's thing OR his aesthetic. But the true desecration was the
awfulness of the instruction -- John Schaefer knew zilch, zip, zero about
alt, and less than zero about gum -- the book was full of howlers (as John
Rudiak & I pointed out in reviews). The saddest part may have been, as
someone wrote on the old history list, an interview with Adams (by....
Mary Alinder?) suggested that he'd lost control of his estate even during
his lifetime.

Judy

>
> The bones are splintered for relics.
>
> I walked (stumbled, actually) into a local gallery here in Austin last
> weekend to view a colleague's work. In the back room I found magnificent
> (and pricey!) prints of Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, Ruth Bernhard, and
> others--all of them magnificent. And my peer's work was nice, and
> formulaic, and well received. Above the Reception Desk (you know what I
> mean) hung a MASSIVE (bigger than any enlarger could fathom) print of
> Moonrise (over the fashionable receptionist). It was Too Big and Gratuitous.
>
> What's been done to AA he did not wish for or deserve. (Just like Jesus, but
> that's another list-serve)
>
> Anyway--
>
> AA set, to my mind, a new ethic of seeing things. He went to public places
> that few ever bothered to notice. He looked until he saw things in a new
> way (as Rodin suggested to Rilke). And then he stood up on top of his Woody
> Suburban and hefted his massive 8x10 view camera and (I imagine) chuckled
> when he had the notion that he might claim he saw the print before he ever
> took the picture. . . . Right.
>
> If I could only have just a smidgen of his adventurous eye and his lusty
> spirit. If I could just notice things in some novel way.
>
> Maybe it was the gin. I dunno.
>
> If, by some strange twist, I hit Send rather than Delete, I hope you will
> all forgive me.
>
> Go easy,
> John
>
>
>
>
>


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