The Portland Metro Photographic News

by Tom Hubbard, PMPN, June 23, 2009

Photo Courtesty of The Ansel Adams Gallery

I began writing this "From the Editor" article as my response to the myriad of postings on Internet websites, forums and blogs recently asking the question: "What would Ansel Adams think of the digital revolution?"  The subject seemed even more appropriate with yesterday's announcement by Kodak that Kodachrome is dead.

Although I am of the opinion that Ansel's creative drive and technical curiosity would have compelled him to become a digital photography explorer, it's still just my opinion.  As such, it didn't really add much substance to the scholarly debate.

I thought it better to get closer to the "horse's mouth".  I am fortunate to count among my photographic colleagues Matthew Adams.  Matthew is Ansel Adam's grandson, and President of The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite.  This business has been a family run business since 1902, is home to the works of Ansel Adams and a major location for photography workshops.

I asked Matthew if he would share his thoughts about Ansel and digital photography with the readers of the Portland Metro Photographic News.  His reply was immediate and enthusiastic.  Here are Matthew's comments to my questions.

What do you think Ansel's reaction to digital photography would have been?

Matthew:

I think Ansel would have been very excited by digital technology and its capabilities. He was always enthusiastic about technology, and would have been thrilled by the advances in photography that have occurred. Digital photography opens up the opportunity for people to more easily explore their creative expression -- you don't need a darkroom, and you can make and delete refinements to the image that might not be possible using traditional methods.

What do you think Ansel would have considered digital imaging's most immediate benefit to his imagery?

Matthew:

In the realm of color photography, digital photographic output resolves the biggest problem Ansel had, the ability to control color in a "local" area of a photograph rather than "globally". (Interestingly, the Ansel Adams book "Ansel Adams In Color" is being reprinted this year with some new images, and the reproductions will be much truer to the original transparencies.)

In my opinion, it is only recently that BW digital photographic output has achieved a level that is comparable to silver gelatin prints. I cannot say if Ansel would agree with me or not.

Do you believe Ansel would be using today's digital capture and digital darkroom technology to produce his fine art works?

Matthew:

Whether he would use digital for his fine art photography is a completely different question. Like any medium, there are advantages and disadvantages to digital photography, and the approach would be different for someone with his experience in traditional photography relative to someone starting out now. The fact that a photograph can be reprinted so easily would certainly have enabled him to spend more time with other images, but would also lose individual variations and interpretations of the negative. Digital photography allows the artist to express more information from the negative, but sometimes more information is distracting to the meaning of the image.

I think most importantly to thinking about how Ansel would have approached it is that, for him, creating the work in the darkroom was a performance (think of the negative as the score, the print as the performance). Each individual print is an expression of how he felt at the time of exposure AND at the time he printed. Ansel was a HUGE proponent of the CRAFT of BW photography, and whether this would outweigh the advantages is something I don't think anyone can answer.

What advice do you think Ansel would offer to photographer starting out today in an almost totally digital environment?

Matthew:

For photographers starting out working today, craft can just as easily be the skill with using software vs. an enlarger. That is the decision of the photographer, the end result is the realization of their artistic vision.

As you know, we are using the technology to create very fine reproductions of his work. The operative word is reproduction, there is none of the variation or different expression from print to print that you would find in gelatin silver, and there is no artistic interpretation relative to the medium.

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No one will ever know exactly how Ansel Adams would have reacted to digital photography and the digital darkroom.  For that reason, the debate, for good or bad, will continue.  But Matthew does provide a more valuable "first hand" and insightful opinion.   

Probably the only point that everyone will agree on is that Ansel Adams and his mastery of the craft have established fine art standards and process quality expectations that will challenge 21st century photographers and digital imaging equipment and software manufacturers for decades to come.

As always PMPN Members are invited to add their own comments to this discussion.