An alternative view from Justin Roberts....

Well, it seems I am going to put my life on the line here, I just ask for a full English breakfast before being shot at dawn!

Today I actually got to the Hayward gallery full of anticipation and hope, this was in fact rewarded, but not in the rooms set aside for master Adams.

Am I really alone in thinking that he talked a better picture than he took? Sure there are some very nice prints on show, the old favourites are there Clearing Storm, El Capitan, Aspens, etc. but having seen these it seems we have seen it all, if not why is it only theses that we see? Indians Dancing - snapshots, portraits - where are they then? What we do get is loads and loads of landscapes many of which are surpassed by what I see on any club competition night. Well I liked the waterfall shots (does anyone else see Bigfoot in Nevada Falls? He's there, look closely. The children saw him long before I did.) and perhaps some of the trees in winter but the rest show him only to be a one trick pony. Looking at his books on sale in the shop only confirmed my disappointment.

Sorry folks, I just don't 'get' him.

Now if we go downstairs we see the results of a man who really can see and what's more important can communicate what he see's. Yes, indeed I am now utterly enthralled by the work of William Eggleston.

He has the annoying habit of not naming his pictures, but then that might arm us with preconceptions which I think would ruin the story he invites us to read from his pictures. Let us take just two of them.

The first is a well known one of a red ceiling in a red room centred on an overloaded electrical socket and lamp. It's a down market joint obviously but of what sort? The colour suggests a brothel and indeed if we look in the bottom right hand corner there is a poster showing sexual positions. But hang on a minute, the diagrams on the poster are very illustrative and stripped of all romance and warmth, so is it a brothel where the decor (I guess here) would be somewhat more sympathetic to encouraging the right mood, unless of course its some sort of price list. Questions, questions. something we never get with Adams. Eggleston challenges us where Ansel simply smothers.

The second picture is of a police car on the edge of a dust blown desert town. Well, I assume its a dust blown and tumbledown town with ramshackle stores and an air of little or no hope but we are not told. Oh no, Eggleston is far cleverer than that, he suggests and we fill in the rest, great stuff!

But all his pictures and portraits tell us something of the futility of a mid american life. I am sure there is love, romance, excitement and fear but its not to be found in his work, unless it is manufactured for an occasion. This is the show that needs viewing, Take in Ansel Adams whilst you are there if you wish, but don't waste too much time on him when the unsaturated vibrancy of Eggleston is shouting at you from below.

Justin.

and then from the British Journal of Photography formum (with permission...)

"Adams makes rocks look like people and people look like rocks."

- Danial Dixon (son of Dorothea Lange)

I don't think you missed anything in not seeing the portraits. You probably did miss something not seeing more of his still life and commercial work.

Adams was a struggling photographer, like the rest of us, until he hooked up with Will Turnage, a Harvard Business College graduate, in the early 1950s. Turnage transformed Adams into a commodity and the rest is history.

This was, in part, achieved by the decision that since Adams was an outspoken conservationist and that much of his work was 'wilderness' that only wilderness photographs be displayed, promoted or discussed. Classic business advice: focus on one topic to remove choice and comparison - kind of like: if you sell hamburgers don't sell pizzas.

I have seen a number of Adams' Exhibitions and must confess a consistent state of being totally underwhelmed. All the hype, the books, the record sales figures for his prints lead one to great expectations; but once the corpse is wheeled into court the judgement cannot reflect the myth.

So far as the 'art' community is concerned Adams was little more than a fascist. His unmerciful public slurs on Mortenson, alluding to him in print as the anti-Christ of photography (as if such a thing exists or is needed), his denegration of pictorialists, secessionists, etc. along with his neglect of his own children are proof enough of this assertion.

He, and his cohorts in Group f/64, were a product of the technological achievements of their time. Equipment and materials had reached a zenith - previously elusive clarity was now attainable with comparative facility. 'Straight' photography became his mantra but in a world where the 'perfect description of the lens' is printed in just about every advertising catalogue produced, surely the impact of straight photography has extinguished somewhat.

In addition to the content, I have been consistently disappointed by the technical aspects of his work also. For a demagogue mounted on the plinth of fine craftsmanship I see too many visible burning and dodging evidence. Here in Australia the Australian National Gallery has a 'Museum Set' which is frequently wheeled out. These were to be his legacy to the national galleries and museums of the world - all I see is money for old rope.

Adams' true legacy is an ongoing endowment to the photo-trade globally. Adams' description of sensitometry and densitometry in lay terms through his advocation of the 'Zone System' paved the way for aspirants the world over to get hooked on the techniques, tools and materials that Adams' espoused. In the USA disciples of St. Ansel trek over-laden in quest of the tripod holes of the master.

In fairness, his workshops must have been quite something when you look at the wonderful work that has been done by former students: Harry Callaghan, Sally Mann, Minor White - to name a few - all used the basic precepts of Adams' teaching as a catalyst from which to develop their own distinctive and individual careers.

Yep! A.A. would have been 100 years old last February and that is reason enough for the mill to grind out another money spinner. Like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe, Ansel Adams generates more income after his departure than before.

But what of Manuel Alvarez Bravo who is still alive? He did wonderfully sensitive and beautiful work. Does he have to fall from the mortal coil before he can enjoy success? Irving Penn is in his eighties and still producing new nudes. Avedon is 79 and hard at it.

At the level of 'Ansel Adams at 100', photography exhibition takes on the movie-going-public level of the block-buster. Thousands of people will flock to the show who would never normally attend a gallery, particularly for a photographic exhibit. Will this filter through and elevate the public perception of photography as something worthwhile and rewarding to look at? Let's hope so.

Walter Glover

Mes