Ansel Adams - his other work... (retronaut)

[adrian jordin]

I thought I knew Ansel Adams' work..brilliant landscapes and some of the definitive guides to exposure and printing...then I found these..

See Los Angeles by Ansel Adams, 1940s | Retronaut for a lot more...

‘In 1943, Ansel Adams documented the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California and the Japanese Americans interned there during World War II.’

See ‘Suffering under a Great Injustice’, 1943, by Ansel Adams | Retronaut for more...

I shouldn't be surprised by his other work, he had to earn a living after all. Its just that these never seem to get a mention.

There's a lot more vintage photography on the above web site, by the way.
Worth dipping into...

 

[Brian Moore]

Nice to see these shots. Thanks for posting them Adrian.

In the '60s or maybe the '70s--yeah,...early '70's I think--Adams was commissioned by the University of California to take shots of the various campuses around California.

He was also involved with Polaroid corporation. I believe he provided them his feedback on their cameras and emuslions but also I read that he gave photography lessons to Polaroid reps.

He had these two gigs after he was well established.

 

[Rob MacKillop]

Love the hat and coat on the hedge in the first. Nice touch. I wonder if he would arrange that kind of thing?

 

[Pete Askew]

Thanks Adrian, interesting. They do have a bit of the look of propaganda to them don't they - the inmates seem very happy with their lot in many of them.

 

[Murray Leshner]

I had a high school girlfriend who went on to some human figure modeling with Jerry Uelsmann and not sure what (in color!) with Ansel Adams, sometime after 1975. I never saw any of the Ansel Adams work but always wondered about the mysterious possibility of AA portraiture in color. She sent me Uelsmann postcards I didn't really understand or appreciate until reading after he died how he used multiple enlargers sequentially to create images.

 

[Pete Askew]

Interesting. I was unaware of the work of Jerry Uelsmann (although following a quick look, a coupel look familar). I will look further. Thanks, Murray. Colour portraits by AA would be interesting to see.