Ansel Adams at 100 Hardcover – August 2, 2001

This book is another lesson from John Szarkowski on how to write about the ineffable. However, it is a catalog of a show that is simply beyond description and contains much that is not in the book. Do not buy the book as a substitute.As a catalog it is good preparation for the show, even for this reader who saw Eloquent Light in 1963 and has been making photographs for 40 years in same locales as Adams. You won't find any massage for Zone-Heads, little Sierra Club poster art and almost no view camera cult food at all. Instead there is one powerful illustration after another of the evolution of an artist. Szarkowski uses his erudtion to place Adams in the art history of his time and the developing culture of the West Coast of which he was a part. He opens many many subjects and leaves us to flip through the book for illustration. He always raises more questions than he answers. He is a great teacher and has made sense of the nonsense about Adams that has accumulated over the years. Anyone with a pulse should be stimulated to see the show and investigate Weston, Strand, Stieglitz and others as well.There is one understandable omission from the book that should have been in the show. There is none of Adams' color work in either. In the book "Ansel Adams In Color" are a couple of color plates done at the same time as some of the black and white images used in current show and catalog to illustrated Adams' style. The color plates show dramatically how Adams turned a three dimensional landscape into a powerful two dimensional graphic work of art. They also show those who have not been here just how dramatically colorful it is. In a very real sense, Adams had to overcome the color to see his subjects.Another major part of the show that had to be omitted is the entire first room containing the works of other artists of Adams' time. Works of Marin, Hartley, O'Keeffe, Dove and several other of Adams' contemporaries and friends are the context in which he worked. Readers can look them up if they can't come to the show.Szarkowski is at his best in this book in comparing Adams with Weston. I know of no other historian who so clearly shows what each was after and how these two artists and ultimately friends sometimes fed on each other. Szarkowski shows their portraits of each other to punctuate their differences. It is much more effective in the book than the show where the point is lost in the scale and depth of the presentation.Finally, Szarkowski does justice to the network of friends, patrons and institutions that made California's art Californian. Any art historian or photography teacher must read this book.Above all, use it to prep for the show. Then heed Mark Twain's caution and follow his example. Bring an extra sweater to San Francisco and see the show, and like Twain, buy a round-trip ticket.

If you can only afford to buy one photo book / coffee table book this year . . . this is the book to buy. Period. This oversized book is beautifully reproduced and lovingly bound to last for ages; a commemorative print, not available elsewhere, is reproduced as a separate plate -- suitable for framing, which is a nice touch: Who among us can afford an original Ansel Adams photograph? As beautiful as this is as an example of book-making, its real value lies in the selection of photos.Of course, no two photographers will ever agree as to what photos should have been included in this massive retrospective -- outside of the obvious ones like "Moonrise Over Hernandez County" -- but every photographer who looks at this book should find inspiration in Ansel's inimitable "eye" that saw, and captured on film, the ordinary and transformed it into the extraordinary; a photographer who saw the extraordinary and transformed it into the sublime.As for the text: I think an academic perspective is certainly appropriate for such a retrospective, but I would dearly have loved to see a piece by, say, Joseph Holmes (NATURAL LIGHT--a gorgeous collection of photos) or another photographer to give it, so to speak, a "through the lens" perspective.Although there are other coffee-table sized books published of Ansel Adams's work, this one sets a high watermark and, as such, should find a permanent place in the library of every serious photographer, aspiring photographer, or anyone with a sense of beauty who can appreciate the rare and wonderful talent that is Ansel Adams.

Ansel Adams produced a large collection of beautiful images that are shared in this book. He also produced several books on making fine photographs such as "The Negative, The Print, Natural Light, Artifical Light, The Camera". The first time I saw his original photographs I was inspired to work at achieving that level of expertise thru the darkroom etc. Now the times have changed, and digital photography is upon us. All too easy to make a properly exposed images and have someone/machine make the "perfect" prints. Ah, yes, the golden days of photography have passed and Ansel's images in publications are to be treasured for reference?, or maybe inspiration? Any of his books/prints are well worth the money to enjoy from time to time. Ansel was truly a great American! Unselfish in giving to those who desired the help and interaction with the great master.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Ansel Adams' birth, John Szarkowski has selected what he considers Adams' finest works and offers a critique that ranks the photographer as one of the great artists of our time.Szarkowski, Director Emeritus of the Department of Photography at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, often selects unexpected and unfamiliar prints in his collection. The book is great in every way. It was printed in tritones at Meridian Printing on paper made in Toulouse, France. The plates are scaled to reflect the relative size of the original photographs; the book and slipcase are bound in a linen cloth made in the Netherlands. It is a fitting tribute to Ansel Adams' art.Adams' pictures define for me what the term landscape means. This is a great collection of his work and should serve provide a firm foundation for Adams' elevation from a photographer to an artist.