Ansel Adams / A Photograph

A PHOTOGRAPH

by Ansel Adams

John D'Agata / The Essays of Ansel Adams / An Allegory

 

John D'Agata: The Essays of Ansel Adams: An Allegory

ANDER MONSON
Friday, December 6, 2013

Until 1927, the photographs that Ansel Adams had taken were not very good: documentary records of an afternoon with friends, a tree that he admired, a sunset worth remembering.  They were placeholders for meaning, but not particularly meaningful themselves.

“Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite Valley,” photographed by Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams and the art of framing

BY DAVID L. ULIN

LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK CRITIC

DEC. 11, 2013 11:32 AM PT

Over at Essay Daily (which calls itself “A Filter for and An Ongoing Conversation About Essays and Magazines About Writing”), John D’Agata offers a brief meditation on Ansel Adams — and the moment he understood that photographs were not taken so much as made.