Finished reading most of Ansel Adams` autobiography…
In short: I found out that he wasn`t as complicated as many people think he was. He was a creative man right from the start of his childhood. He just loved playing the piano and later on, taking long walks through Yosemite. This was what inspired him to take what he saw back home in the form of an 8x10in negative.
He was meticulous and sort of a perfectionist in the many things that he did. He didn`t like his work beaing mishandled of labeled as something else. Also somewhat of a celebrity, meeting 2 US presidents and working as a technician for Hasselblad.
He didn`t have any special techniques for getting the images, he just walked knowing that something will eventually turn up…..and somehow something did eventually turn up, like the Moonrise over Hernandez scene, just as he was going home. I must mention that the final print for this photo was made after THIRTY YEARS!!! of trial and error. Maybe that is why it`s one of the world`s most expensive photographs.
Unfortunately there aren`t many details about The Zone System, the method which he used to render most of his images in perfect exposure. I`ll have to get The Negative for that.
Tomorrow I`m taking some of Henri-Cartier Bresson`s books…
