Ansel Adams Photographer, Artist & Activist
“Ansel’s portrait of O’Keeffe and Cox was made at the rim of Canyon de Chelly. ‘I was walking around with my Zeiss Contax,’ he wrote, ‘and I observed O’Keeffe and Orville Cox in breezy conversation standing on a rock slope above me. They were engaged in a bit of banter. The moment was now . . . .’ “In the spring of 1935, Dr. Carl Bauer, the U.S. representative of Carl Zeiss, had presented Ansel with his first 35mm camera, a Zeiss Contax. Filled with enthusiasm for ‘the miraculous instrument’ and excited by the photographic possibilities of the small format, he spent the following summer in the Sierra in what he described as an ‘orgy’ photographing ‘everything from clouds to water-bubbles, people, mules, rocks, and flowers.’ When Ansel showed the 35mm camera to Stieglitz even he was seduced: ‘If I had a camera like that I would close this place up and be out on the streets of the city!’ “That winter Camera Craft magazine published Ansel’s article on 35mm photography with the title ‘My First Ten Weeks with a Contax.’ He wrote, ‘The camera is for life and for people, the swift and intense moments of existence . . . ,’ and his light-hearted photograph of O’Keeffe proves the point. He continued: ‘In general I favor a tripod-mounted view camera for static subjects that invite contemplation.’ ‘This was one special moment requiring the spontaneous capability of my 35mm camera, not the cumbersome and time-consuming setting up of my view camera.’ ‘My main aesthetic objective has been to find the ‘rightness’ of subject in relation to the apparatus; not to imitate the production of larger cameras, but to speak in the specific language of the medium employed, or, rather, in a particular dialect of the language of photography.’” Excerpt from ‘Looking at Ansel Adams’ by Andrea Gray Stillman, published by @littlebrown . 📷1: 35mm proof sheet of images Ansel made at Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona, in 1937. 📷2: “Georgia O’Keeffe and Orville Cox, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona,” 1937. Photograph by Ansel Adams. Collection Cantor Arts Center, The Capital Group Foundation Photography Collection at Stanford University. @cantorarts
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Comments
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4 days ago
Thank you so much for sharing the contact sheet, they're fascinating to see
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4 days ago
One great thing this contact sheet reveals is that Ansel was using DuPont nitrate film, and that it was possibly bulk loaded. Thanks for the glimpse of how he worked @anseladams ❤️
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4 days ago
So cool to see the proof sheet! And he def picked the winner 🙌🏼
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4 days ago
Slide 2 is one of our favorite photos in our photography collection♥️
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4 days ago
Both figures look like they are significantly dodged by the glow around them
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4 days ago
I wonder what he was shooting with- a 6x7 probably
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4 days ago
No- 35mm
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4 days ago
🫶🏽🙌🏽
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3 days ago
❤️
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4 days ago
❤️
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3 days ago
Love these. 🔥🔥🔥
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4 days ago
🔥
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4 days ago
awesome
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4 days ago
❤️
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