A few years ago, I purchased a small (about 4×5 inch) Ansel Adams print, shown below.
This image was probably printed sometime in the mid 1930’s, and was most likely sold in the Yosemite Park gift shop, where Ansel’s wife’s family had a long term concession. The image is of Yosemite falls, probably made in the spring (judging by the strong flow of the falls). While I do not know the exact details of the photograph, it appears to have been made with a large format camera, and shows care in both the composition and the printing.
Yesterday, I and my wife spent a few hours in Yosemite Valley, on a lovely day in spring. I carried a hand held digital camera, and shot several hundred images over the course of a few hours. One of the images is shown below:
Yosemite Falls, March 22. 2016
Of course, my image is taken from a different vantage point, with a different camera, in a different century, and with a different purpose. I expect absolutely no sales of this image from the gift shop (my wife comes from a family of plumbers, not gift shop owners. Maybe if the toilets back up, I’ll get a call). My image was, of course, made in color, but in honor of Ansel Adams, I converted the image to black and white and very carefully selected the “green filter” option to bring out the texture of the trees.
As a young man, I read an essay by John Szarkowski about Ansel Adams who noted that “many people prefer the experience of viewing an Ansel Adams photograph to the experience of being in the actual landscape”–a statement that shocked me when I read it–at the time I believed that a photograph was always only a small part of the reality of the place, and therefore always inferior. But being in Yosemite valley is to be in a crowd–there were probably 10,000 people in the valley when I was, all of them with their cameras and cell phones, posing themselves, family, and friends in front of the falls and cliffs that Ansel Adams so famously photographed before. Every view was occupied. After about two hours (much of it spent looking for a toilet without a long line), my wife remarked that she didn’t like the place. The cliffs and falls are unarguably beautiful, but the crowds and the speeding cars racing by meant that none of it could be enjoyed in silence or solitude.
Lower Falls view, Yosemite Falls, March 22, 2016
The most satisfying views I found were quieter ones, along walkways, into groves of trees. And, yes, I know, these too have been photographed to death, but at least they felt a little more private than the grander views. And, besides, my wife was looking for a tree.
Forest near Yosemite Falls viewing area, March 22, 2016
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