Postcard from Tucson – Ansel Adams

I spent Thursday afternoon at the Tucson Museum of Art enjoying a large print exhibition Ansel Adams photography. The prints, from a private collection and are all original prints done by the master in his darkroom. The exhibition covered the gamut of his work from Yosemite and other national parks to oceanscapes, photos of San Francisco, portraits and close-ups in nature. Some works I had never seen before.

He was a master of the black and white negative and print. Much of his life’s work is housed at the Center for Creative Photography here on the campus of the University of Arizona. But these prints were not from there.

I’ve known about Ansel Adams most of my life…mainly because we tread many of the same paths. He lived and loved San Francisco as did I. He became a master photographer in Yosemite National Park, where I spent much of my youth. We both visited and photographed many of the same places in the West, not because I was trying to copy him, but because we shared a love of the same country.

He was my inspiration during my early days of photography, both with a camera and in the darkroom. I make no claim to being a master photographer as he was, but if I have any decent qualities about my work, it is due in large part to him.

If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you know I love black and white photography. Adams wrote many books on the subject and created the Zone System. Believe it or not, black and white photography is much harder than color, even in the digital darkroom. So, seeing his work again the other day was a reminder of how great he was and how is work will endure as long as there are photographers. Personally, he is the baseline in which I measure my own skills in black and white prints.

You know this blog is mostly about me, my photography and paintings, and my travels. But today, I make way for a real master of the art form and show you one of his beautiful prints of Half Dome.