March 19, 2005

• Having finished my series called Saturday Poem I Admire last week, I pondered what series to begin next, and deliberately avoiding Saturday Wrestler I Admire at the suggestion of thenarrator, I hit upon photography, which is an art form that fascinates me, especially black-and-white photos. I’ve been discovering some wonderful photographers here in Xangaland and am hoping to get back into shooting photos again soon, picking up where I left off when I took a darkroom class a few years ago. I love doing these series things. It’s like being back in Freshman Humanities class in college. I’m learning so much. So anyway, it’s going to be:

  SATURDAY PHOTO

  Aspens, Northern New Mexico
  Ansel Adams

  From Portfolio VII, Plate 6, Edition 49/115
  Negative Date: 1958
  Print Date: 1976
  20″ x 24″
  AA/1453

  On a crisp autumn day in the mountains north of Santa Fe, when he was 56 years old, Adams took his classic photograph of a “cool and aloof and rather stately” aspen grove. He avoided including any part of the sky which would have diminished the luminous foliage. Using filters he enhanced the general contrast of the scene. The white tree trunks, reflecting ambient light, stand out against the dark forest background. This 20″ x 24″ photograph comes from Portfolio VII which was dedicated by Adams to the noted photography collector, David Hunter McAlpin, one of the founding members of the Photography Department at MOMA.

  Ansel Adams was born in 1902 in San Francisco and was an only child. When he was 14 his family made a trip to Yosemite where he took his first pictures. He would return there every year for the rest of his life. A year later he worked for a photo-finishing business. His first acknowledged photograph was taken in 1927 when he was 25 years old. It was called Monolith: The Face of Half Dome. He became completely dedicated to photography three years later when he met photographer Paul Strand. And the rest is history.

  In the 1950s Adams embarked on a series of murals for private commissions, collectors and exhibitions. He undertook a major project for the American Trust Company (later taken over by Wells Fargo Bank) in San Francisco that consisted of mural sized scenes of California mountains, vineyards and hill country. Adams’ photographs were printed in the classic book, The Pageant of History in Northern California, with text by Nancy Newhall, published by the American Trust Company in 1954. To make his mammoth prints Adams would project the image onto a wall to which he had adhered photo paper. Some of his images were printed up to 6.5 x 9.5 feet. The technology to make these prints was so cumbersome that Adams used Moulin Studio facilities in San Francisco.

  Twenty-six years after this photo was taken, Ansel Adams died of heart failure aggravated by cancer at the age of 82.
  

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  Deep Thought: “When I heard that trees grow a new “ring” for each year they live, I thought, we humans are kind of like that: we grow a new layer of skin each year, and after many years we are thick and unwieldy from all our skin layers.”
  Today I am grateful for: Not having to have a 12-year-old birthday party as I listen to the screeching going on across the street
  Guess the Movie: “The war started when people accepted the idiotic principle that peace could be maintained by arranging to defend themselves with weapons they couldn’t possibly use without committing suicide.” Answer: On the Beach, 1959. Winner: thenarrator.
  Instructions for Care: What Ashley Smith Reminded Us
  by Susan Van Haitsma
  There must be several reasons why the story of unarmed suburbanite, Ashley Smith peacefully winning over armed fugitive, Brian Nichols so captures the public imagination. Because news accounts of brute force being used to overcome brute force are the norm, this story stands out, offering a different kind of heroism. Audiences might applaud instinctively when the bad guy is trounced by the good guy, but when words and wits triumph over weapons, cheers rise from a deeper, more satisfied place. (Rest of article here.)
  End of Day: 9:16 pm
  + = Nice contacts with people today.
  - = Still haven’t heard from the damn yardwork folks.

  • 7:44 pm
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