Monument Valley and Ansel Adams

Recently we took a trip to Monument Valley in Arizona and I made what I thought then were some pretty good photos.

But, when I got home I saw this photo of Monument Valley taken by Ansel Adams.

Adams didn’t do much color work because he thought, correctly, that the technical tools did not yet exist for him to express himself the way he could in black and white.  With the advent of digital photography and computers that has changed.  Nevertheless, Adams didn’t do much color photography so I thought there might still be western landscapes that he had not already done and done better than anybody else.  But no, wherever you go, whatever you shoot, Ansel Adams has already been there, signed the guest book, and photographed the place better than anybody else.

So, when I saw this photo, I decided the best thing I do for my camera was put the poor thing out of its misery by taking it out in the backyard and shooting  it. . . .

Top 10 List

It is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States.  Here is a list of 10 things we are thankful for here at this blog.  These are in addition to the most obvious and most important: family, friends, good health, shelter, pets etc.

10.  Women unwilling to take off their clothes for my camera.

9.    Hahnemühle Paper

8.    Adobe

7.    Ansel Adams’ Moonrise over Hernandez, NM.

6.    Silver Halides

5.    MOMA

4.    My Cameras – Hasselblad for film; Nikon for digital.

3.     Readers of this blog

2.     Women willing to take off their clothes for my camera.

1.     A land of clear light

Ansel Adams and Nudes

Ansel Adams reportedly did not make photographs of nudes. He said of Edward Weston’s nudes that they all looked like they were dead. I’ve never been able to look at this photo and many other of Weston’s nudes without thinking of that comment.

I don’t believe it, of course. It is quite possible to make photographs of nudes that are vibrant, vigorous and spirited. But it requires care of both the model and the photographer. Neither should ever forget that a four dimensional – at least four, maybe eleven; but this is not the place to discuss quantum mechanics – event is being reduced to a two-dimensional photograph. A particular moment in time is being reduced to a single moment, something that may be ontologically impossible. Buddhists, after all, define eternity in just such terms and they have a point. Eternity is something that has no beginning and no end. Think of a moment. Think of this moment. When did it start? When does it end? Art of all kinds must wrestle with that question at some level but especially photography.