Ansel Adams, “Moonrise, Hernandez, NM, 1941“

OK everyone, it is the last day of the year, December 31, 2012, and time for the last of my Favorite Photographs for 2012 Series.   For my generation of photographers, could there ever be any doubt, it is ” Moonrise, Hernandez, NM by Ansel Adams (1902-1984).   The folklore about this image, taken late in the afternoon on November 1, 1941, from a shoulder of U.S. Route 84. is, well, legendary.

Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes had hired Adams to photograph federal lands. As Adams recounted:

“I could not find my Weston exposure meter! The situation was desperate: the low sun was trailing the edge of clouds in the west, and shadow would soon dim the white crosses. . . . I suddenly realized that I knew the luminance of the moon—250 cd/ft². Using the Exposure Formula, I placed this value on Zone VII. . . . Realizing as I released the shutter that I had an unusual photograph which deserved a duplicate negative, I quickly reversed the film holder, but as I pulled the darkslide, the sunlight passed from the white crosses; I was a few seconds too late! The lone negative suddenly became precious.”

And why is it so precious, why do we relate to it so strongly?  Well for me, there is first of all the light, the patch of setting sun, the dark sky.  Then there is the detail in the moon, the fact that we can make out the features.  And finally, yes it is the glow of the grave marlers, the white crosses.  Adams is quite correct about the crosses.  They are the essential element.  For me it is not only one of Adams’ greatest images, it is one of the world’s greatest images.

I wish you all a Happy New Year!

Abelardo Morell, Umbrian Landscape Over Bed, Umbertide, Italy, 2000

Abelardo Morell (1948- ) is one of the most creative photographers alive today.  If you visit his website you will find remarkable, novel, often whimsical series of photographs. The creative mind of the artist is always present. I had no doubt that I would choose for the 2012 favorites list one of his camera obscura series.  But then I had to pick which one, which gave me the fun of visiting all of them again..

In my post about pinhole cameras, I described the basic function of a camera obscura – the us of a pinhole of light to project onto the walls of an otherwise dark room what is outside.  Morell chooses dramatic sites for his camera obscura images, often a hotel room with a view of a historic or otherwise scenic site.  He darkens the windows save a pinhole and projects the scene on the opposite wall, sets up his camera to photograph the image and then exposes,often for as long as eight hours.

These pictures are inspiring, not only for the dramatic scenes chosen, but also because of the placement by the artist of the mundane, or every trappings, of the room.  It is the play between these two aspects that ultimately make the image.  Therein lies the artistry!

Recently, Morell has taken camera obscura images in color.  Also he has created an optical device that reverses the upside down images of a pinhole camera, thus rendering them right-side-up.  You can read about this at the “On Location” link on his website.

When you create these lists of fite photographs, the cliche’ often arises: “If you were on a desert island and could take only one image with you, which would it be.”  I think that, for me, it would be “Umbrian Landscape Over Bed, Umbertide, Italy, 2000.”  It would always remind me of the simple beauties of the world.  Composed by the artist above an old time bed, the whole scene is reminiscent of a childhood story like “Peter Pan,” and I would be constantly reminded that there is magic in the world

Figure 1 – Anne Brigman’s “The Bubble, 1909,” from Wikicommons and in the public domain.

I have spoken before about Anne Brigman’s,“The Bubble” a mysterious image of a female nude, in a cave, creating and launching a bubble on a mythic stream.  Interestingly, the light comes enigmatically from the left as if there were some hidden and unseen illuminating power.

Anne Brigman (1869-1950), was a member and practioner of the  photo-secession, is famous for heavily reworked negatives and a pictoralist sense of our allegorical tradition.  There are references to myths that are deeply engrained in our psyches, such as that of the mother goddess.  The bubble, which appears in several of Brigman’s works, evokes the ovum from which we are all born.  The river is not only the birth canal but the river of life on which we must all journey.

Then too there is the classical imagery of the renaissance.  We are reminded of Leonardo’s (or presumptively Leonardo’s) Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World), where the Christ holds in his hand a crystal orb, representative of the cosmos or the universe.

I find that there is a very special and profound sense of solitude that I achieved when I encounter Brigman’s work in a quiet gallery.  It is the best way to see them.  I find myself studying the forms and allusions reflectively.  It is for that reason that I count “The Bubble” among my favorite images.

Figure 1 – Edward Steichen, “The Flatiron Building at Night, 1904,”By Ghirlandajo at ru.wikipedia (Transferred from ru.wikipedia) [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

This wonderful image, of dark and foggy Madison Square and the legendary Flat Iron building, then one of the tallest buildings in New York City, captures forever the mood, spirit, even the smell of NYC at the dawn of the twentieth century. It was taken by Edward Steichen (1879 – 1973) and is an early example of night photography.

Notice the subtle coloration.  Steichen manually and laboriously applied layers of light-sensitive gums to create the one-of-a-kind sense of color.

Steichen was heavily featured by Alfred Stieglitz in Camera Work between 1903 and 1917.He went on to become Director of the Department of Photography at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where he curated the famous The Family of Man exhibit.

Even today, the triangular Flat Iron building still seems a bit magical. And, speaking of witchcraft, who can forget James Stewart tossing his hat from the roof onto a snow filled Madison Square as he romances Kim Novak in “Bell Book and Candle?”

Beth Moon, Kapok

I spoke about California Photographer Beth Moon on November 1 in the context of magical realism.  She is one of my all time favorite artists, and as I said then, “her work is not just worth seeing, it is worth seeing again and again.”

Kapok comes from Beth’s portfolio of tree pictures, “Portraits of Time.” Trees are silent witnesses to time and history.  And, the trees that she photographs are among the most ancient and most magical.  Trees, I think, carry a sense of faith for us, a faith in the eternal continuity of life.  There are two great acts of faith that we, as human beings,  partake in: having children and planting trees.  I planted a Norway Spruce once in my back yard.  It will eventually grow a hundred feet or more tall.  I will not live to see that.  But it will grow without me, and every time  I look at it I think of the great continuum that goes beyond me.  Such is the sense of wonder that Beth Moon’s tree photographs raise in me.   And Kapok is one of her best.

The is a wonderful movement in the image.  The placement of the limbs, roots, leaves, and clouds create a spectacular dynamicism.  The tree appears to be dancing, to be spinning on axis.

The one thing that remains to be said is that this is a platinum palladium. Seeing them in digital doesn’t quite do them justice.Each print is an individual.  If you get the opportunity to see Beth Moon’s work in person you should do so.