Ansel Adams and the Photographers of the American West (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Ansel Adams (Author) "Ansel Adams is a figure of towering stature in the history of photography..." (more)
Key Phrases: shadow catchers, vanishing race, official photographer, San Francisco, New Mexico, Civil War (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Ansel Adams has been called by many the greatest photographer of all. He proved most decisively that photography could be a major art form. His pictures, whether still life, portrait, or the landscape and nature studies for which he is is most famous, are all imbued with a poetic feeling, a poetry enhanced by the exceptional clarity of the images. Adams's work was part of a tradition of western American photography that began in the late 19th century and included the work of Carlton E. West, Edward Muybridge, and several Civil War photographers including Alexander Gardner, Timothy O'Sullivan and A.J. Russell, among others. Photographer Edward Curtis's ambitious 30-year documentation of eighty tribes west of the Mississippi came out of the same fascination with the region's grandeur and wildness and the drive to record it. Nature's glory shines through in this beautifully produced work, with over 280 photographs and a fascinating text by noted photographic historian Eva Weber. It will be treasured not only by legions of amateur photographers but by anyone interested in the history and beauty of the American West.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Thunder Bay Press (CA) (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1571458077
• ISBN-13: 978-1571458070
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,581,195 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent!, April 13, 2007

By	Stuart Wier (Boulder County, Colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a fine introduction to some 19th c. landscape photographers of the American west, as well as Adams. The chapter "Views Aesthetic and Spiritual" has the best explanations of the key early 19th c. concepts "sublime," "picturesque," and "beautiful" that I have encountered. Weber is clearly extremely well informed about the subject and an excellent writer of a quality rarely enocuntered. This alone makes the book worth while, even without the pictures. (Everyone knows not to judge a book by its cover. I am amazed anyone would review a book based on the cover, or have the nerve to make such a review public.)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent collection, December 27, 2006

By	Ashley "nathiebug90" - See all my reviews

I think the only other review so far of this book dismisses it too quickly. It is actually an excellent collection of photographs with an insightful text. Many of the photographs are given a full page and I think this increases their impact over other books I considered buying. The photographs are, themselves, mesmerizing which is to be expected with a photography great such as Ansel Adams, but I also enjoyed being introduced to the work of other artists with whom I was not familiar. Together, it is a complete collection of photography for those who are interested in black and white photography (as I am), landscape photography, or even (I would think) just the American West.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bootleg book, September 23, 2008

By	Peter D. Wagner - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The person that put this book together used cheap copies of the originals from the library of congress when Ansel photographed for the WPA and this book has no affiliation with him or his estate, do not buy this book.