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Old 10th November 2012, 08:52 AM
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Trevor Crone Trevor Crone is offline
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Default Ansel Adams at the National Maritime Museum

I've already been twice to see this wonderful Ansel Adams exhibition, "Ansel Adams: Photography From the Mountains to the Sea" at the NMM. As I'm a member I can get in free so I will certainly be going again. There are about 100 prints in the exhibition, a mix of his iconic and never before exhibited work. The exhibition catalogue is also worth having for it not only has the exhibition work but several not in the show. At £20 it's beautifully produced. I actually felt a couple of the reproductions were of better quality then the original prints, which in my opinion were over enlarged

Ansel Adams was a big influence when I was getting somewhat serious about my photography back in the 1970's. Seeing his work in the "Land" exhibition at the V&A made me realise how beautiful a fine black and white print can be. I've striven for this ever since.
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Old 10th November 2012, 09:49 AM
mpirie mpirie is offline
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Thanks for the heads-up Trevor.

Like you, AA has been (and continues to be) a huge influence in my photography.

I've been fortunate enough to see exhibitions by him, Edward Weston and John Sexton and there's nothing like seeing the original prints as they wanted them seen.

I for one will find my way to the NMM soon.

Mike
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Old 13th November 2012, 09:40 PM
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Martin Aislabie Martin Aislabie is offline
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Excellent

Trevor - thanks for the "heads-up"

Now I know what to do with one of my days of remaining holiday for this year.

I'm a real fan of AAs work

Martin
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Old 14th November 2012, 12:42 PM
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Here's a link to a short five-minute slide show, narrated by the NMM's Philippa Simpson.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20304829

Nick
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Old 27th November 2012, 11:45 PM
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Today I had the great pleasure of whiling away a good few hours with Trevor at this wonderful exhibition. On my return home, browsing through the exhibition catalogue, I came to the conclusion that actually, Ansel's compositions are really quite 'everyday' and 'ordinary', and easily within the realms of most photographers I know, but what sets him apart from most is not only his extraordinary darkroom skills, with the most exquisite glorious blacks, lovely creamy whites and bright, on the edge highlight detail, but his sense of space, his timing, and quite obviously his patience, as in most images it is clear to see that Ansel had sat and waited for all of the elements to come together to create his pre-visualized image.

This is a great exhibition, beautifully put together and presented, with all the usual classics alongside work that I had never seen before, and to top that, it is on in such a wonderful location. I think that even the most seasoned darkroom worker, alongside the newcomer, could learn so much from seeing this exhibition. Definitely one not to miss.

Thanks Trevor for a great morning/afternoon. it was good to catch up .

Stoo
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Old 28th November 2012, 10:06 AM
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Really good meeting up with you yesterday Stoo. I thoroughly enjoyed our journey around the exhibition. Your observations are, I feel, spot on. In a world which seems content to just view photographs on some kind of VDU are really only getting part of the story. Viewing a well printed photograph is an absolute joy, well it certainly is for me.

If this exhibition is in reach of any FADUist then I would urge them to go and see it. Even if Adams' work is not to your personal taste, just admire the quality of some of the supremely printed work, this is print quality in abundance.
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Old 28th November 2012, 09:25 PM
IanNN IanNN is offline
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Hi
I saw the exhibition a week or so ago. Excellent, as you say, with a lot of pictures I had not seen before. I was struck by many pictures with hard shadows, contrary to the zone system obsession with detail, probably due to the strong light.
The catalogue seems to have printed several of the images lighter than the prints. More modern tastes or the effect of subdued light on the gallery, I wonder? Or my 5 minute memory span...
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Old 5th March 2013, 08:13 AM
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I finally managed to persuade my wife that we need to go and have a look at this exhibition. In fact we have had a weekend of them as we also visited the Man Ray show at the NPG. If you can I highly recommend the Adams show. As Trevor said 'just admire the quality of some of the supremely printed work, this is print quality in abundance'. I have found it very inspiring.
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Old 5th March 2013, 10:07 PM
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People like me who live too far away can fortunately buy the catalogue online. I've just done so.

Thank you, Trevor
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Old 8th March 2013, 03:19 PM
youngrichard youngrichard is offline
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Went with my wife yesterday; she is not impervious to what I do, allows me to post my best prints in our hallway; but she was captivated by what a master can achieve.
I have a coffee table book of his Yosemite prints, but what I really wanted to see were the huge prints he made for some company boardroom, which were horizontal projections onto roll-paper ?24 or 30 inch wide then pasted onto board in strips to give a final result of maybe 8ft x 6ft. I am probably way out in size, but the sheer virtuosity of the achievement is stunning and when you look at a small section the detail is amazing. Lots of other problems immediately come to mind - how come one section is developed to exactly the same contrast as its neighbour, how come the joins are almost undetectable; and so on.
Anyway go and see it; astonishment guaranteed.
Richard
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