Comments on: Ansel Adams photography books

By: QT Luong

QT Luong — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 06:18:14 +0000

David, although there is an illustrated version, the meat of the autobiography is writing rather than photographs, therefore I’ll cover it in the subsequent post. I don’t plan to review “This Is The American Earth”, feel free to post a link to your blog for this. Regarding the exhibit series, aren’t all the books out of print anyways ? Adams made little mystery of his disdain for color photography.

By: David Leland Hyde

David Leland Hyde — Fri, 03 Aug 2012 05:08:18 +0000

That’s what I figured, also it was not a Little Brown or an Ansel book per se. What about the autobiography too though? The one with the photographs? I have both the paperback w/o photos and the hardbound with photos. I wonder why they let “This Is The American Earth” go out of print. It was just reprinted again in 1999, which is not that long ago. I guess you know Bill Turnage has a real hate streak for the David Brower legacy, even though DB and AA became friends again late in life. That’s what I’ve heard from a highly reliable source anyway. Maybe they want to let news of the Exhibit Format Series die. From another very reliable source, one who was there when it all happened, Ansel was condemning of the series as soon as it went to color. I don’t intend that to cast Ansel in a bad light. I’m just repeating what someone else said. Everything I do and say puts Ansel in a good, highly positive light, because he did that for many, many others and the whole medium. I have great respect for him and will only sing his praises in anything I write on my sites or books because Dad loved and respected him so much.

By: QT Luong

QT Luong — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:34:56 +0000

David, thanks for pointing attention to “This Is The American Earth”. I agree with you about its importance. Because there are so many Ansel Adams books, I’ve arbitrarily limited this survey to books in print.

By: David Leland Hyde

David Leland Hyde — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 07:19:11 +0000

Great post, QT. I’ll probably refer to this post from one or two of mine in the future. You are missing probably THE most important and definitely the most famous one: “This Is The American Earth,” that started it all, but that was not exclusively an Ansel Adams book. That was a Sierra Club book as described in my series of posts starting with: http://landscapephotographyblogger.com/photography-history/sierra-club-books-exhibit-format-series-1/ The second post in my series will concentrate almost exclusively on “This Is The American Earth.” I look forward to your further posts regarding the Basic Photo Series. Maybe you will do a post on “This Is The American Earth” too…?

By: Christopher Robinson

Christopher Robinson — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 18:20:46 +0000

I find well-curated and well-printed photography books to be incredibly inspiring and you’ve definitely included most of my favorites featuring Ansel Adams’ work. I agree with Paul Beiser about “The Making of 40 Photographs”. It’s a must-have for any library.

By: QT Luong

QT Luong — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 06:01:03 +0000

Thanks for the comments. “40 images” is great both for photographs and writings. I’ll write about the (auto)biographical and technical books in another post which will focus on Adam’s oeuvre as a writer.

By: Paul Beiser

Paul Beiser — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 03:52:02 +0000

Thanks, great selection! My favorite is “The Making of 40 Photographs”. Its so eye opening to read his words on these images and how they were made.

By: Richard Wong

Richard Wong — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 22:08:08 +0000

Nice collection QT. I have his biography by Mary Alinder.

By: pj

pj — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:11:17 +0000

Great selection. I have a few others on my shelf –

Classic Images, published while he was still alive.

Yosemite and the Range of Light, also published while he was still alive.

An Autobiography, and Letters, both both finished and published shortly after his death.

The biography by Mary Street Alinder, while obviously not his work, is a fascinating look at the life of Ansel Adams.