When looking at the long list of hits that Beatles or Rolling Stones have produced and comparing that to what other successful bands have made, it dawns on you just how talented these bands were. It’s a different league, simply. This is exactly the feeling I get when browsing the 400 images of Ansel Adams – there are so many great images presented in one book. He was and is in a league of his own.
Another thing that strikes me is the consistency of the work. Of course the images have been carefully selected amongst many more, but the sheer consistency and super high quality of each and every image is truly impressive. Adams is known for his motto that “nothing is worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept”, and he lived his own motto: every concept in the 400 images presented is razor sharp.
The book gives a short introduction by Andrea G. Stillman, but other than that the book is simply presentation of 400 images, organised into different phases of Adam’s life. The book is relatively small (25cm by 20cm) and paperback quality, but the black and white images present themselves really well despite the format not being the largest.
And as an outdoor photographer, I especially enjoy the section from the national park and monuments, probably the images that Adams is the most famous for. And of course you will find the moonrise image from New Mexico and the golden gate before the bridge. But there are many, many more great images.
Can I recommend the book? Yes, if you are interested in landscape photography and want to study one of the greatest of all time, then this is a good place to start. When evaluating my own work, I often ask myself if I would hang my own work in my living room, and only a few images pass that test. But when it comes to Ansel Adams, I’d gladly put any of the images in this book on my wall.
Related reading
Review: Photo Icons, 50 landmark photographs and their stories, by Hans-Michael Koetzle