Ansel Adams Printing

"The Print is the Performance"

In a previous post, I mentioned the phrase: "The Print is the Performance." This term was first used by the great landscape photographer, Ansel Adams who documented dramatic black and white photographs of the untouched American landscape . As a young boy, he discovered the piano and developed a talent that could have carried him through a lifelong career in music. A few years later however, he discovered photography. Adams found similar meaning in the process of photography to that of performing concert music. He realized that a sheet of music filled with notes could not be fully appreciated until the talent of the pianist brought them to life on the instrument. The same holds true in photography.

Adams would work on a negative (sometimes an entire day) in the darkroom to bring out the full range of what he felt and visualized when the photograph was made. He equated this process with performing the music in a concert. Thus his phrase, " The negative is the score: the print is the performance"

In today's digital world, this phrase is vitally important for photographers to understand. The moment a photograph is made is only the beginning of the creative process. It is only complete when the artist carries the vision through to a "well performed" print.

Yes, we see most photographs (including personal ones) on a computer. Technology is a wonderful vehicle for sharing images in ways we never have previously, however the value of a skillfully crafted print holds the true and lasting vision of the artist and the hearts of subjects it preserves for generations to come.

Robert

Robert Harrris Photography