Ansel
Adams at 100
SFMOMA Field Trip
October 27, 2001
8:30 AM - 6:00 PM
This year is the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Ansel Adams, and the SFMOMA is exhibiting
some of his most important photographs. We are planning a trip to the
exhibit on Saturday, October 27th.
Looking At Photographs
by Rebecca Gregg
For
humans, face-to-face encounters are usually personal, and fortunately,
usually pleasant, effective, meaningful, only rarely annoying, thought
provoking, puzzling or a combination of these. These responses are true
of face-to-face encounters with photographs as well. Viewing photography
in a gallery takes the viewer away from books into issues of actual
print size, real contrast, clarity, or cropping, print quality from the
photographer rather than the printing press, and issues of matting,
glass reflections, and the atmosphere of the gallery itself.
It can even introduce jockeying with other gallery-goers for a
better position to see the prints as in the recent crowded SF MOMA Ansel
Adams exhibit.
Studies show that the average person spends much less than 30 seconds
each when viewing works of art in galleries. Further we are more likely
to spend time when we understand or agree with or already “like”
rather than with themes or styles not to our liking. Photographs readily
invite discussions on technique often at the expense of discussions
about meaning or visual symbolism.
Terry Barrett in Criticizing Photographs states that the best way
to appreciate an image is to observe it, think about it and talk about
it. Of course, the first step of observing doesn’t have to be in a
gallery or museum rather than in print. But nine SVPAC members on a
recent Saturday trip to San Francisco did observe the work of Ansel
Adams, photo-influenced work of Chuck Close and Joseph Cornell, and
historic examples from the permanent MOMA collection. The group also
viewed the stunning mammoth prints by Carleton Watkins and Eadweard
Muybridge at Robert Koch Gallery , more Adams and Edward Weston’s
contact prints at Scott Nichols Gallery, icons of American photographic
culture Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander and Garry Winogrand at the Fraenkel
Gallery, and a variety of edgy figure studies by various artists at J.J.
Brookings Gallery.
Barrett’s third step, talking about images, began almost immediately
when SVPAC members confronted the photographs, and discussions continued
on the drive back to Sacramento. Thinking about the images, Step Two,
continues long after the trip to the galleries. This on-going process is
probably the real reason to study images: for provoking ideas about
subject matter, technique, esthetics and meaning which lead to greater
understanding and expanded appreciation.
SVPAC is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) educational organization, donations are
deductible to the full extent of the law.
© 2001 Sacramento Valley Photographic Art Center / Viewpoint Gallery. All rights reserved.