Anyone want to study?

I haven't looked at the site yet but will.

one thing to comment on. The more I learn about Ansel Adams the more I learn he was a marketing master. Knowing that and seeing the work of his contemporaries makes me understand that as a master photographer... he was a marketing master.

Ansel studied under Alfred Stieglitz

Because of the "digital age" we are once again faced with the same problems that the original masters were.

Is it art?

or

Is it just a photograph?

*steps off soap box*

Ansel Adams did NOT study under Stieglitz!  Stieglitz did a lot to bring Adams to a national audience, but he did not intruct him.  Ansel was already an accomplished photographer before coming to NYC and meeting with Stieglitz. 

If you want to see some truely beautiful platinum/palladium prints, take a look at the work of Fredrick Evans.  He was an Englishman who spent a lot of time documenting cathedrals throughout England and, I think, Europe during the early part of the last century. 

Take a look at the work of Carlton Watkins who dragged a 20x24 GLASS PLATE camera across the American West with pack mules! 

Because of all of the controversy about his sexual images, not a lot of photographers have taken a close look at the work of Robert Maplethorpe.  They are missing something!

You have to look at the work of Edward Weston, but few study Tina Modotti, his assistant/student/girlfriend . . . you can put those in whatever order you want. 

Weston's kids have alway left me pretty cold.  They are excellent technical photographers, but I was never impressed by their "touch".

Hummmm . . . more later . . .

Ed

I've heard those names, but don't know a lot about them. But I will

Thanks Ed.

It was my impression that Adams came to New York to learn from Stieglitz who was the only person at the time selling photographs as fine art.   My source is a documentary on Stieglitz that I only watched a couple of times so I might have missed something.

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/Alfred_Stieglitz_The_Eloquent_Eye/60020598?trkid=222336&lnkctr=srchrd-sr&strkid=1814981678_0_0


Love the statement that some of his most controversial work was nudes of his girlfriend and that controversy helped launch her career. I'm sure she didn't really need the help but its a great story. Don't say, Ed lets see who else knows who she was.

I may have misunderstood, but if you're asking about the woman who was Stieglitz's girlfriend, it was Georgia O'Keefe, the infamous painter.

See, read the articles on the masters noted in this site I posted the link to, eh...

Edward Weston, Tina Modotti... read the article on Weston and follow the links.  This is only a starting point if you really want to learn about him (or her).  Cole, Brett, same thing.  There is information and links in the article on Weston from the link I posted.  Try www.edward-weston.com and see what you get out of it.

You want to know more about Ansel... you guessed it, read the article.  Mapplethorpe is in the mix, but I did not find Watkins or Evans, so you will have to search some other locations to get information on them I guess.

Seriously guys, I didn't mean to cause a debate, or even to find out how smart each of us is about any individual photographer.  I only wanted to provide some inspiration or ideas.  Hopefully someone will read just a tidbit of what's in the mass of articles on this site and either learn something, or gain some insight into their own art.  Maybe it will inspire you to try to recreate, in some fashion, a masterpiece; and then you will learn from it and gain some level of respect for the original creator of the work.  I, for one, am going to try my hand at Josef Sudek's 'Still Life with Bread and an Egg'.  This image has always intrigued me for some reason, and I want to try my own rendition of a similar idea.

Also, check out some of the Contemporary Artists.  Just for a start:
-Edward Burtynsky has an amazing ability to use flat lighting and geometric shapes with vivid colors to do his magic.
-Jock Sturges... you want controversy?!
-Peter Gasser's architectural photography.
-Sebastiao Salgado's images will make emotions well up inside you that you didn't realize you possessed.

I don't want to stifle the conversation here, so please keep talking; but I do want to redirect it to the site that I linked to.  I really did only mean to provide some reason for us to continue progressing in our own rites and abilities, to have a reason to think outside our paradigms and look at the world around us in a new way... again.  Please enjoy, please do some reading (or at least looking at the portfolios), and then please respond here as to what 'moved' you or made you think about yourself and your directions with your photography again.  Who knows, maybe someone will reinvent themselves, maybe you'll just try something new, maybe you'll simply gain a respect for an artist you've never heard of before.

  I don't want to put a downer on this thread, please take this in the context it is meant.  Happy reading .

Travis

Cool then, keep it up .

Travis

In College, I had to do a paper on Adams 95% and a paper on Evans 75%
I found the two to be on the opposite sides of the field sort to speak. Evans was quiet the character. In todays view, he was a GWC using a view camera, one like adams, he did well of course.