Recommended Books

The Perfect Coffee Table Book?

Why are 'coffee table books' called 'coffee table books'? As chronically underfurnitured person I have never been able to answer that question to my satisfaction. So the problem still stands. Even with the arrival of 'Ansel Adams At 100'. Now I get the idea though.

Do you like to work out?

'sorry, wrong wording - let's try it again'.

Would you like to work out, but still haven't got the equipment together? You actually were about to get you something to help you get rid of that holiday fat, weren't you! Well, the search is over (TADA!) - the perfect gift for you has just arrived! 'Ansel Adams At 100'! With 'Ansel Adams At 100' these pesky pounds will be gone in no time! Until the completion of the complimentary exercise video we recommend to use the item in more orthodox ways though - for example in connection with a coffee table.
On second thought - better make it two (coffee tables) because you'll need something to support the Slip In Case (which is very much a piece of furniture itself) during your read.
So then, there you are! No! No coffee right now, thank you! First because I doubt that there's any room left for the mug and second ' if you spill something on that fancy linen cover you pretty much did it! Your trusty 'Bounce' wipe won't help here and perhaps the lady from the local Laundromat would look a little worried, if you'd drop a stained Ansel book on her counter ' 'for dry cleaning please!'

Who is John Szarkowski?

In the unlikely event, that you shouldn't know - the back flap won't enlighten you (one might say 'it couldn't be woven in'), neither will you find some explanation anywhere within the book. Anyway, let's just say he wrote the essay and directed the production. That's my guess at least, partly because he is credited and mostly because this Ansel volume looks so very different from the last efforts of Little, Brown & Co. - like 'Ansel Adams In Color' and 'Ansel Adams' California'. In case you haven't heard of the publishers either - they're the ones that accompany their Adams editions with the sentence: ...'Only such works published by Little, Brown and Company can be considered authentic representations of the genius of Ansel Adams.' Thanks for reminding me! Otherwise I might have just thought that lately the foremost goal is to cash in ('Ansel Adams In Color'???, I wonder how long it'll take until there's something like 'San Francisco's most beautiful intersections, photographed by Ansel Adams'...).
But back to the author.
I do like Mr. Szarkowski's prose very much. His style then as now is deceptively simple, surprisingly perceptive and often ironically detached. He doesn't engage in any worship either. Very much a city man (and perhaps a little under the influence of the annual Sierra Club Calendars) he always made it plain that he: 'distrust(s) pictures as radiant and untroubled as this one, especially if that picture is a photograph' [John Szarkowski: Atget, The Museum Of Modern Art and Callaway, 2000]. This distrust seems to help him to maintain a kind of healthy emotional distance to Adams' work what makes his introductions to those books a worthwhile read in itself. Even so, 'Ansel Adams At 100' seems to be already (if my count is correct) the third collaboration between Szarkowski and 'Little, Brown & Co.' on the photographer. The third and certainly the heaviest to date.

'The king is dead. Long live the king!' (The Illustrations)

Since he hung up his reins in the photo department of MOMA John Szarkowski has continued to bring photography to the people. In 'Ansel Adams At 100' in the best royal style, by not giving the people what they want, but pretty much what he wants them to want. This makes for a refreshing change in the publisher's catalogue, but is of course subject to interpretation. Szarkowski clearly prefers Ansel's detail work mostly done in the 1930s and groups it in a way that you feel occasionally the strange sensation of browsing through a Weston catalogue. The prints selected are also rather personal - there is some popular Adams, but not much. Most of selections are unknown and some even undeservedly so, but it is definitely not (and not intended to be) a 'Best Of Adams'. The same counts for the some of the printed versions reproduced. Ansel printed with increasing contrast towards the 1970s and John Szarkowski doesn't seem to like that very much - at least he tends to prefer the softer versions done in years before (not always, but mostly). I for my part am much a member of the high contrast fraction, so obviously my choice would have been different - then again, so would be the ones of the odd dozen people one might ask. In all fairness he does show in two cases the 'before' and 'afters' (even if they are from different negatives as in 'Mount McKinley and Wonder Lake'), so that you can make up your own mind if you are interested.

Conclusion

I think the book is a great achievement. For the publishing house that showed that they still can do it, for the editor that showed it once more and for the customer that gets it all handsomely presented in a surprise package. What more could you want?

Rating on the 8x10' film holder scale

out of 4

Other books by John Szarkowski:

Looking At Photographs: 100 Photographs From The Collection Of MOMA, Bulfinch, 1973 (1999)
Yosemite And The High Sierra (Ansel Adams), Little, Brown & Co., 1994
Atget, The Museum Of Modern Art and Callaway, 2000