Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1996/12/01

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Subject: Re: Hasselblad v Leica
From: "Jeff Segawa" <segawa@netone.com>
Date: 1 Dec 96 11:34:19 -0600

> The work looked
>uniformly bad, the grain dominated and it was just so obvious that the
>pictures were too big.

Could this have been a deliberate, stylistic decision? Personally, I'm not
favorably inclined towards hand-tinting, soft focus or exaggerated grain,
but some folks are.

I once spent an enjoyable hour in Galen Rowell's Mountain Light
Photography. Not all of the prints on display had a big impact on me (some
were too grainy or too contrasty-looked like Cibachromes), but I was really
taken by both the composition and the execution of his polar bear cub shot,
as it is nearly abstract and monochromatic, and I noted no technical
distractions. In fact, I was so impressed that I *bought* an EverColor
print of it and haven't begun to grow tired of seeing it. Image size is
roughly 30 x 40 cm. As luck would have it, the photographer himself was
onhand, and he gave me a bit of the background: Evidently, the polar bear
WOKE UP as he was shooting, so it's iffy as to whether or not a larger,
slower camera would've worked here :-) I'd highly recommend a visit if you
find yourself in Emeryville, California.

On a slightly different note, I don't know if it's very well known, but
silver-gelatin prints from "original" (I took this to mean "working
copies") negatives are available for many of Ansel Adam's Yosemite-related
works at very reasonable prices. Besides being striking works of art in
their own right, they do posssess a certain visual richness which is a
delight to behold, even up close, even though the prints themselves are
only sold in 8" x 10" size. Lovely as they are, images as printed in books
cannot compare, as I quickly discerned in a side-by-side comparison. Photos
can be mail ordered from The Ansel Adams Gallery aka: Best's Photo, in
Yosemite Nat'l Park. Sorry, no phone number handy. Evidently, they are
still being hand-made by former apprentices, so there can be a delay in
delivery times. At least one of the photos (Moon Over Half Dome) was  shot
with a Hasselblad. This gallery/gift shop is also well worth a visit, and
in this case, the surroundings aren't bad either :-)

By the way, if anyone knows where I might see original images by Freeman
Patterson, Cindy Sherman and John Sexton, could you e-mail me? Particularly
interested in portfolios, if such exist.
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Specialist in interesting, quality junk.
Seeking Kiev 60 and Horizont-202 related items.
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