“Adams feels deeply what he sees, he has a reverence for the earth in all its variety, delicacy and strength, but he is the absolute reverse of effusive: he sees with such austerity, even severity, that some have mistakenly called him cold. He has an incomparable technical expertness in communicating what he sees and feels, and for half a century and more he has gone on making photographs so plainly stamped with his personal artistry that they hardly need his steeple-A signature on them. They have taught thousands how to see: they have become household images, they have steadily affirmed life.”
~ Wallace Stegner
(1909-1993)
“I had a fine north-light window in my San Francisco home which gave beautiful illumination, especially on foggy days. My mother had proudly brought me a large, pale pink rose from our garden and I immediately wanted to photograph it. The north light from the window was marvelous for the translucent petals of the rosebud. I could not find an appropriate background. Everything I tried, bowls, pillows, stacked books and so on was unsatisfactory. I finally remembered a piece of weathered plywood picked up at nearby Baker Beach as wave - worn driftwood. Two pillows on a table supported the wood at the right height under the window and the rose rested comfortably upon it. The relationship of the plywood design to the petal shapes was fortunate and I lost no time completing the picture “
~ Ansel Adams
(1902-1984)
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This is one of the rarest of Ansel’s genius images and one of his very early masterpieces, I have only seen a handful of them over the last 40 years anywhere. It is just pure beauty.
I was in San Francisco last month exhibiting at an art fair there. I got a phone call from a good client there who is a very successful residential real estate broker. He told me to be ready the next day at 9am.. “I am going to pick you up at your hotel “ he said to take me somewhere special. “Where I asked ?” -- "You’ll see" he said.
We drove 20 minutes to a beautiful area and we got out at a relatively simple house in a serene calm neighborhood. As we got out the car to my complete surprise he told me that this is where Ansel Adams was born and where he lived a big part of his life before he moved to Carmel. We enter the house and can you believe I am standing in the area where Ansel took this very photograph.
I then saw where he practiced his beloved piano and where his darkroom was, and where a great part of his photographic legends were printed before he moved to Carmel. I was overcome with emotion. It was a priceless gift and one of the most moving experiences of my life. Standing in the shadows of one of my photographic heroes.
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