Isbn: 0500274738
Sales Rank: 569103
Subjects:  1. 1890-1976    2. Exhibition Catalogs    3. Exhibitions    4. Individual Photographer    5. Photo Essays    6. Photoessays & Documentaries    7. Photography    8. Photography, Artistic    9. Ray, Man,   

Reviews (5)

Nice Reproductions
Ansel Adams: Classic Images

This book provides high quality representations of Ansel Adams' photography inexamples of 75 of his best images. The text, written by James Alinder along with a preface by John Szarkowski, portrays the story of Adams' life and his philosophy regarding art and existence. The text starts the reader off at his birth and takes you through Adams' childhood and the decisions he makes as he searches for an outlet for his creativity and a strong career path. Having also been a professional pianist, Adams' later discovers his passion for photography and nature, and spends the rest of his life a successful artist and activist.
This book takes you through major events in his life and references prints in the book to give visual examples of his ever-evolving photographic style. I would definitely recommend this book, if not as a successful biography, but as a stage for some beautiful, high quality reproductions of Adams' work.

A fantastic Collection
This collection can be seen at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona, through July 7, 2002. This book is the catalogue of the exibition! If you like the book you should see the originals! They will blow you away.

Reviews (8)

Great informative and entertaining book!
As far as I'm concerned, this is a must have 4th book to the Ansel Adams series of The Camera, The Negative and The Print. It is very informative to read about not only the circumstances in which Adams made these black and white photographs, but also some of the technical and even emotional factors.

Great reading for anyone interested in photography (mostly landscapes and medium and large format).

The book and photographs are well printed and seems sturdy.

Superb Case Studies
If you want to learn photography and you would prefer to learn (or supplement your learning) by intensive case study, this is the book for you. Ansel Adams is a master at controlling composition, light and perspective, and he conveys his unique methodology admirably in this book. This book covers much more than his epic landscapes -- there are a lot of still life, portrait and architectural case studies. And he's not just discussing the zone system, but also everything else involved, including packing the right equipment, leaving at the right time, and hunting down the right subject. And above all, patience and persistence. The photos themselves are reproduced with admirable tone, sharpness, and contrast, as they are in all the books in this series. And although there are only forty of them, each case study runs two or three pages in addition to a full page photo. And if you like this, check out Ansel Adams' classic three part intensive introduction to photography, in the same series as this book: The Camera, The Print, and The Negative.

How Did You Make That Photograph, Mr. Adams?
An essential book for all photography fans!

In 1983, Ansel Adams picked 40 of his most memorable and diverse black and white photographs as examples of his work.For each one he wrote a brief essay that described the circumstances of deciding to photograph the subject, how he came to prepare for the photography, his companions, special challenges that occurred along the way, how he selected the composition, tricky light and shadow conditions encountered, technical details of how the image was captured (equipment, film speeds, settings, filters, lenses, etc.), technical details of printing the image, and the surprises he experienced.

In the midst of all this, he shares his philosophy of life, nature, and the art of photography.It's like attending a master class with a genius.Even if you know nothing about photography, this book will open your eyes to new ways of seeing and experiencing the world around you.

For those who love these images, the stories that accompany them will broaden and deepen your appreciation of what Mr. Adams accomplished.If you are not a technically-oriented photographer or fan, realize that only about 20 percent of the material is primarily technical.The technical parts are very interesting, but the rest of the material is even better.

Mr. Adams did draw the line at one point though."Absent from these pages [is] a statement of what the photograph 'means.'"His reason:"Only the print contains the artist's meaning and message."In other words, the work should speak to you for itself.

He does point out some limits to his essays that you should keep in mind.He often doesn't remember when he made a particular photograph.Friends would remind him that a certain print was published in a certain publication in 1934 and he had dated it as 1936 elsewhere.He also did not keep notes of how he made the image after the negative was developed.So all of the technical notes and dates are probably off a little.That's all right in many cases.You are not a historian, and you are probably not going to use glass plates.Modern equipment is much different from what Adams used, so you will be making major adjustments anyway.

His style of photography was one adventure after another.You'll be climbing with him through snow-clad forests in freezing weather, and suddenly he's down to his last exposure.Which filter should he use?

In fact, in many cases, Adams was gambling on how the image would turn out because he would not get a second chance.It's like reading a detective story, in which the story begins with a flashback sequence of how the mystery ends, like Sunset Boulevard, because the finished image is there is its duotone beauty.

In other cases, the experiences of Edward Weston helped him avoid mistakes.As a result, you get to see his delightful, dramatic images of dunes in Death Valley.

As usual, the Little, Brown pages are often too small for the images.Despite my annoyance at this limitation, I did not grade the book down since the essays are so wonderful (of more than five-star interest) and are the real reason for reading and examining this book.

I would suggest that you read The American Wilderness before reading this book.That will give you a context for understanding what Mr. Adams is talking about in these essays.The essays assume a certain level of familiarity with the people, philosophies, and locations involved.The American Wilderness can provide that background for you.

After you have swum in these wonderful stories, I suggest that you write an essay about something you have done that contains high drama and meaning.Then share that essay with someone who would appreciate know the whole story.How can others learn as rapidly and as well as possible if your experiences (successful and unsuccessful) are lost?

Reviews (14)

Almost worthless without the original color plates
As another reviewer states the original had 150 color plates this version has only 8 in mine. The visual phenomena are so complex that without the plates you can't possibly accurately understand what the book is talking about. Sure you could make you own examples, but if you did, you would NOT be sure, given the complex examples, that you understood what the author was talking about. Instead you will have a false understanding or incomplete understanding that will make you look foolish. The publisher is cashing in on the author's previous great work without really republishing it. This is the lowest I've ever rated a book.

helpful, but original Hardcover was better
Having experienced the original hardcover version,and having been given the task of going through the excersizes given in the book,the softcover version is useful,but not nearly as comprehensive and in depth as the original hardcopy.
Still a worthwhle read from a master theorist!
Better than a good read is to get a hold of a packet of Colored Paper and replicate some of the assignments in the book.Best way to learn.

Reviews (2)

THIS IS A BOOK TO STUDY !
Reading this is a must for any artist .

What can I say but I was told to read this and am so glad I was. Some of the best advise I ever got .

TO read the book and what is in it !

Editorial Review

Isbn: 2940033897
Sales Rank: 2266574
Subjects:  1. General    2. Individual Photographer    3. Photo Essays    4. Photoessays & Documentaries    5. Photography   

Reviews (4)

Directed at the expert, fine for the fan, too!
I would like to add to the reviews below that this book is a pleasure to hold and to view because it is so well made.If there is any 'art' book that should be made for posterity it is the catalog raisonne of an artist.In this instance, the publisher has done the artist's audience a real service for, the book is beautifully printed and bound in Italy by Amilcare Pizzi; Italy seeming to have usurped Switzerland's place as the world's premier art book printer.The pages are thick and glossy and the reproduction is top notch.
For those of you who are unaware of what a catalog raisonne is, it is meant to be a compilation and historical record of an artist's work that documents execution date, medium, size of image or plate, size of edition if a print, whether signed or unsigned, etc.This information is used by artists, historians, collectors and dealers to attribute a piece of art and place it in the artist's oevre, and of course to aid in placing relative value on it.Here too, the archivists, publisher, and editor have done a fine job of documenting the relevant facts.This is especially important in the case of Warhol who was a serial printer, sometimes to the point of intentional promiscuity.So, the fact that wherever possible relevant information is provided speaks volumes about the prodigious effort that must have gone into this undertaking.I rate this book four stars because I fear that since this is the third edition, there will be yet another edition published that renders this one obsolete.I understand this is precisely because Warhol was an inprecise documentarian, when he chose to do so at all, but I don't relish having to purchase another high dollar, though valuable book that is only slightly different from the one I already own.For people who don't give a darn, the book rates a five.

Andy Warhol Prints
This 3rd edition of Andy Warhol Prints gives much information to someone who is interested in the various published and unpublished works which Warhol created.In addition to providing color photographs of the prints, the book gives details about the edition size and characteristics of each individual portfolio.This book will be quite useful for the Warhol fan, art students, as well as collectors of Warhol's work. It is the most definitive book of his prints available.