A couple of weeks ago I found out about this exhibit and quickly realized I needed to get to Boston before it closed. When I checked out the Musuem’s website I saw there was another exhibit running in parallel, Graciela Iturbide’s Mexico. Then I learned of another intriguing show, Contemplating the View: American Landscape Photographs, at the Andover Gallery of American Art located about forty minutes away on the campus of the Phillips Academy.

What does one do armed with such information? Two words … Road Trip!  Got up before way before the crack of dawn and was on my way before 6am.  Three exhibits and almost seven hundred miles later I pulled back into my driveway that evening at 10:30pm.   A lot of driving, but thankfully I had some great music to listen to and a lot of folks to catch up with on the cell!

I want to focus on the Ansel Adams in our Timeexhibit for now and will cover the other two shows in subsequent entries.

For many the question is how many times do you need to see an Ansel Adams show? I’ve seen several, including the famous retrospective at the National Gallery Art in Washington, DC.  The answer for me is whenever the opportunity presents itself!

I have also visited the Wilderness Society’s Washington DC headquarters several times and viewed Adams’ incredible Museum Set. Can you imagine sitting at your desk or walking through the office and looking up only to see Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico staring back at you!  I also was lucky enough to visit the Master’s home during a workshop with John Sexton and saw many wonderful images there.

So let’s get to it. The exhibit primarily included works by Adams, many familiar and a number no so much. It also included pictures by other great photographers that came before him, such as Carleton Watkins, Eadweard Muybridge, Timothy O’Sullivan, and Frank Jay Haynes, as well as others that have followed him such as Mark Klett and Lois Conner.

The pictures by the pioneering photographers were very interesting, but to be honest with you, much of the newer work left me cold.  To say I am tired of gimmicky collages and boring large color photographs is an understatement.  Ok, now that I got that quickly out of the way, let’s focus on Adams!

An eye opener for me was that many of the prints, including some very famous ones, were small in size.  I mean about 8×10 or less!  Generally, we are used to seeing Adams prints much larger in size.  If there is anyone that can routinely pull that off it is Adams, as much of his work is truly majestic.  You are used to seeing 16×20, 20×24 and even larger prints, but these smaller ones were incredible little jewels!!  They’re truly amazing and force you to look closely to explore their detail and discover their hidden secrets!

Here are my highlights in particular order taken from my next to nearly illegible notes I scribbled down.

Monolith, The Face of Half Dome 

Clearing Winter Storm– an 8×10 version that was deeply selenium toned, as well as a much larger print without the toning effect

Moon and Half Dome

Adams first portfolio, Parmelian Prints of the High Sierras – 15 exquisite 8×10 prints includingMonolith, The Face of Half Dome

A number of small images I had never seen before in the flesh or in print, including several beauties from Adams’ “Shipwreck Series”, photographs made in 1932 of rusty metal and rocks found on the beach.  Others included Indian Mortar Holes, Big Meadow, Yosemite National Park; and Leaves in Pool, Sierra Nevada, California

Other wonderful small prints of street and nearby scenes I had never seen before – Cigar Store Indian, Powell Street, San Francisco; Political Sign and Circus Poster, San Francisco;  and Laurel Hill Cemetery, San Francisco

Golden Gate Before the Bridge 

White House Ruin, Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona accompanied by a very similar earlier photograph previously made by Timothy O’Sullivan 

Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona

Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico

Georgia O’Keefe and Orville Cox

The Enchanted Mesa, near Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico 

Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake, Alaska

The Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park

Mount Williamson, Sierra Nevada, from Manzanar, California

Sand Dunes Sunrise, Death Valley National Monument

Grass and Burnt Stump, Sierra Nevada, California

And finally, a fantastic picture of graffiti I had never seen before– Wall Writing, Hornitos, California

Enough said. The exhibit closes in less than a week.  If you are even remotely close to Boston you must GO SEE IT!