<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: disappointed
Review: Given the raving reviews I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book after waiting for it for over a month! It took me less than 5 minutes to leaf through it - what a disappointment. Expecting outstanding photographs, they are mediocre, bland, uninteresting subjects. What are the subjects? Hoping to find breakthroughs in lighting, subject treatment or composition, I wonder why certain areas are overexposed and bothersome to look at in the photographs. Nothing stands out as innovative. I'm amazed people praise him as being so much better than Ansel Adams. It is undeniable that Ansel Adams' work is more esthetic, dramatic, fascinating and of a quality far beyond this. I'm sending it back.
Rating: 
Summary: Adams vs Adams
Review: I couldn't agree more with the previous review. If I see another (Ansel) Adams calendar on a wine-bar wall, I think I may just throw up. That stuff just feels like chocolate box kitsch to me now, whereas (Robert) Adams is at least trying to show us exactly what he actually sees, rather than a stage managed image of 'natural' perfection, and so to me at least, he feels more genuine and far less smug than his more famous namesake. But hey, I love this book, and this photgrapher, so I'm probably a tad biased.
Rating:
Summary: I love it but yes I'm biased
Review: Just this day received my newest purchase, by Robert Adams, wonderful dreamy and poetic, yet gritty and real.Someone paid me the best compliment ever recently when they compared my own art to Mr Adams' This book will take a proud spot beside my bed for the next few weeks it will be a joy to fall asleep with it in my hands dreaming of the impending spring and summer light that is soon to reach us here in the southern hemisphere. I must admit I was pleaently surprised to see that it was almost exclusively images, I was expecting another collection of essays similar to his recent book "Why People Photograph" Crikey I'm not complaining
Rating: 
Summary: Robert Adams' Landscape Photography
Review: Robert Adams' latest book of landscape photographs - "Notes for Friends" - continues to challenge our views of what a landscape photograph can and should be. Beware though, not only are Robert Adams and Ansel Adams not related, neither are their photographs. I believe Robert Adams is responding to a reality that was only beginning to be recognized when Ansel Adams was producing his greatest works during the 30's and 40's. As a result, Robert Adams' pictures are not the glorious large format views of wilderness once synonomous with our concept of 'nature'. Most of these pictures were taken at the boundry of commercial farmland and encroaching urban sprawl. If you think about it for a while, what else is there? Does it really make sense for any photographer to plant his tripod in the same spot as the previous dozen have done in order to photograph the same 0.1% of our land reasonably preserved as wilderness? Isn't the seemingly endless succession of photographs of pristine beaches, glowing aspens and towering clouds over unspoiled mountains a deception if not an outright lie? Does anyone in 21st century America still think this is 'nature'? But, what if a perceptive photographer who truly cares about all this were to just go out a few miles from home and walk about with a 35mm camera any of us could afford to own? What if his goal were to find whatever beauty may still exist and, perhaps, some reason to be hopeful for the future? What would result? I believe the result would be photographs just like the ones Robert Adams has given us in "Notes for Friends". For those who can cope with what we have done to our natual heritage, it's a wonderful book of pictures. For others seeking refuge in the past, it will invariably disappoint.
Rating:
Summary: Robert Adams' Landscape Photography
Review: Robert Adams' latest book of landscape photographs - "Notes for Friends" - continues to challenge our views of what a landscape photograph can and should be. Beware though, not only are Robert Adams and Ansel Adams not related, neither are their photographs. I believe Robert Adams is responding to a reality that was only beginning to be recognized when Ansel Adams was producing his greatest works during the 30's and 40's. As a result, Robert Adams' pictures are not the glorious large format views of wilderness once synonomous with our concept of 'nature'. Most of these pictures were taken at the boundry of commercial farmland and encroaching urban sprawl. If you think about it for a while, what else is there? Does it really make sense for any photographer to plant his tripod in the same spot as the previous dozen have done in order to photograph the same 0.1% of our land reasonably preserved as wilderness? Isn't the seemingly endless succession of photographs of pristine beaches, glowing aspens and towering clouds over unspoiled mountains a deception if not an outright lie? Does anyone in 21st century America still think this is 'nature'? But, what if a perceptive photographer who truly cares about all this were to just go out a few miles from home and walk about with a 35mm camera any of us could afford to own? What if his goal were to find whatever beauty may still exist and, perhaps, some reason to be hopeful for the future? What would result? I believe the result would be photographs just like the ones Robert Adams has given us in "Notes for Friends". For those who can cope with what we have done to our natual heritage, it's a wonderful book of pictures. For others seeking refuge in the past, it will invariably disappoint.
<< 1 >>
| 
