Ansel shot more than scenery,,

[Frog]

From the Library of Congress, a collection of photos by Adams at a Japanese re-location camp in California. Mostly portraits but some every day life shots too.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/manz/

[Old Timer]

Most of us are not as familiar with this side of Ansel's work. But during his days of working for the government during the depression he did lots of different projects that were not magnificent landscape photos..

[Liz]

Most of us are not as familiar with this side of Ansel's work. But during his days of working for the government during the depression he did lots of different projects that were not magnificent landscape photos..

Wow! I didn't know that! My favorite b&w photographer is Walker Evans who did similar work for the government. However, he is quite well known for this work and there are many publications/books filled with his photos. He was a remarkable photographer, and the best for the human interest story, although this wasn't his goal.

I find it interesting that some of the photos done by great photographers aren't always a "pixel peepers" dream. Some of Walker Evan's work would probably be criticized today due to imperfect composition, rule of thirds, contrast, etc.

Thanks for posting this Frog. B&W is still my favorite.

Liz

[Medley]

In 1942, Adams was over-age for the draft, but wanted to contribute to the war effort. Because he was friends with the Manzanar camp director, he was invited to document the internees and camp life.

He keenly felt the injustice of the exclusion order against the Japanese Americans. When told he could not photograph the guard towers, Adams took photographs from the towers, giving away their existence.

A collection of Adams’ Manzanar photographs was published in 1944 under the title, Born Free and Equal. It was not well received by wartime America and in fact was controversial.

He would later say of his work there "…from a social point of view that’s the most important thing I’ve done or can do, as far as I know.”

In 1965, Adams himself donated the images to the LOC, where they languished until after his death.

http://www.amazon.com/Born-Free-Equa...2403281&sr=1-1

- Joe U.

[drg]

You bet Ansel did things besides Landscapes. From the famous Georgia O'Keefe picture/s and other portraiture, the war project pictures mentioned, to even architecture, A.A. had a huge body of work across multiple subjects.

Ansel even shot in Color! Gasp, choke, sacrilege, no really and its published and pretty popular.

Ansel Adams in Color photography books via Amazon

Numbers of photographer's who knew him in his last years spoke of some advanced gear in his studio and darkroom that he was trying out for both color and other upcoming technology. AA would have been undoubtedly an early digital photographer.

There's three Ansel Adams entries in my blog from 2007
Ansel Adams Camera
Ansel Adams an Afternoon Alone
Ansel Adams The Museum Set

During the presentation by Ansel's son Micheal in 2006 at the beginning of this unique show, the Manzanar pictures were discussed and a couple of Ansel's favorites were in this show. His son and this set of 'curators' added a few twists to the official story including that there may have been 'official' suppression in exchange for the 'great displays' of his various works in the D.C. museums. Ownership of those images was also in question. Thus why they now reside where the do as opposed to Arizona or with the family as with so much of the rest of his work.

After first seeing some of his works over thirty years ago now for the first in person hanging on a wall, and with subsequent review, Ansel's great magic strength was printing. The techniques and time needed to produce his best work is even today astounding to think about, let alone replicate. Adams always was hesitant to show color work as he never felt he had the control of the process that he did with all variants of b/w, mono/duo/tri color processes.

The Museum Set I was privileged to see had photographs unequaled to anything I've seen of his work that wasn't one of these sets. Remember, this one was of his daughter's personal collections!