Ansel Adams (Prints) Visit The Phoenix Art Museum

If procrastination was a virtue I would be the most righteous human-being on the planet. On November 11, 2006 the Phoenix Art Museum inaugurated its new Norton Photography Gallery with an exhibit titled “Modern by Nature: Ansel Adams in the 1930s”. It ends on February 4, 2007. After months of good intentions, I finally made it to the exhibit one week before it ends. This wonderful exhibit that begins a partnership between the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona and the Phoenix Art Museum includes 62 images from Adams’ most prolific and diverse period of this 60-plus year career. Many of these images were in his own private collection that he printed to display for friends and close associates. I was surprised to discover that the largest images displayed in this collection were 8x10-inch prints. Many were as small as 3x4-inch prints. An Ansel Adams exhibit last year at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art contained some prints as large as eight feet tall. Those were amazing. So my only disappointment, if you can call it that, was the general size of the images presented in the Phoenix Art Museum exhibit. Don’t misunderstand, these prints are beautiful and truly the work of a master photographer, but they do lose some wonder when reduced to 3x4 inches.

Adams is now a photographic icon, and synonymous with Yosemite National Park, but this exhibit displays a wide range of subjects and techniques as he honed his craft. Yes, there are plenty of Yosemite images, that are glorious, but I was far more interested in the structural and abstract images presented. The ‘Barn, Cape Cod, 1937’ print, a gift to the collection from the heirs of Adams’ close friend and fellow photographer, Edward Weston, is an amazing exercise of tonal range. The pure white paneling of the barn in the center of the image, and picket fence in the foreground, set against the middle grey of the barn doors, nearby structures and the sky above compliment the black shadows throughout the image. A prime example of Adams’ command of this own Zone system early on in his career. A 5x7 image titled ‘Cedar Tree, 1938’ is a wonderful abstract example of Adams’ early treks into the Yosemite Valley as do many of the tree, roots, grass and snow images displayed. ‘Snow Sequence, 1930’ a set of three 8x10 prints is both dynamic and amazingly simple. Let’s face it, Ansel Adams is a genius because the man could make moss look interesting.

I was also impressed by the museum itself. This was the first time I had been there since its recent re-modeling. If in the Phoenix Metro area, I highly recommend taking a couple of hours to walk through the entire museum, more if you can spare them.
Images provided by The Ansel Adams Gallery.