Looking Glass Magazine No. 10

18 Pages·2016·2.68 MB·English

by  Looking Glass Magazine

Ansel Adams Workshop, Tucson, 1975 by Michael Duggan
All photographs courtesy © the artist
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TALES FROM THE LENS
by Michael Duggan
Michael Duggan takes us on a journey back in time to 1975 to a workshop
that included some of the most significant photographic icons of the 20th
century. His story shares insights and historical nuggets and also reminds us
of important truths. We step into the same photographic stream as those who
went before us and yet that very stream is ever-changing.
The Center for Creative Photography organised a week-long workshop in
Tucson, Arizona that ran the gamut from inspiration, to anguish, to devilment
and everything in between. The players in this drama included those at
the pinnacle of the profession; Ansel Adams, Minor White and Frederick Sommer.
There were lectures and seminars with Robert Heinecken, Judy Dater, Jack Welpott
and Tom Barrow along with the great author and advocate Peter Bunnell. There
were also those who just gaining traction in the fine-art field; Richard Misrach and
Alan Ross. Attendees were mostly very serious about their calling in the field and
all were looking toward the possibility of a career in fine-art photography – although
most still had their ‘day job’.
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Gardener in TeePee, Tucson, 1975 by Michael Duggan
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TALES FROM THE LENS
The students mostly spent the week in private homes around town. Most of
us were pushing the limits every day for what we could learn and the limits
of social stamina every evening – and we immediately found ourselves in a
photographic family. No need to specify that it was film based. And we were young!
The first day started with a lecture by Ansel
Minor did portfolio critiques by
Adams and ended with a lecture by Minor
White. Ansel elaborated on his concept special arrangement during the
that a negative is like a musical score with
week – if you dared.
highs and lows, and nuanced moods – and
that one skilled enough in performance
could print a negative in a way that would
do the ‘composer’ justice.
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#1. Ansel Adams, Norman Locks (then Director of the Ansel Adams Gallery Workshops) and Minor White
#2 and 3. Minor White and Judy Dater
by Alan Ross
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TALES FROM THE LENS
Minor’s workshop dealt with the connection of body movements to seeing.
Certainly Minor approached his work from many different spiritual and con-
ceptual directions over the decades. He taught how to take the energy
from the rest of the body and put it into the eyes – to enhance one’s vision beyond
ordinary reality.
Minor did portfolio critiques by special Dater still remembers “a kind of
arrangement during the week – if you
electricity
dared. At the beginning he’d ask if your in the air...”
desire was to have him point out the quali-
ties in your work that made it strong, or if
you wanted to hear where there was deficiency, weakness or ‘lies’. Minor made this
offer with little concern for your ego getting fat or keeling over dead from starvation.
He spoke to the truth of each image. That was his way.
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Bamboo Fence, Nogales, 1975 by Michael Duggan
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TALES FROM THE LENS
I still remember Ansel’s hands
magically
waving in the
enlarger light.
At the end of the third day Frederick
Sommer gave a stunning lecture.
He talked extemporaneously about his perspectives on photography in rela-
tion to the world of art. One of his rather thought-provoking statements was that art
is the difference between the camera-recorded image and reality.
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Mission and Wired Window, Tucson, 1975 by Michael Duggan
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TALES FROM THE LENS
The “dream-team” of all panel discussions took place on Thanksgiving day:
Ansel Adams, Minor White, Frederick Sommer, Robert Heinecken, Judy Dater
and Jack Welpott. Sobering that Dater is the only survivor of this panel today!
Dater still remembers “a kind of electricity in the air – with everyone being fully
charged.”
While we had all been able to develop negatives from our photo shoots, it was not
until Friday that we got to see them printed. Ansel did darkroom demonstrations
where he selected a negative from the
The artistic greats at our work- attendees. I was lucky enough to have
him print mine – ‘Mission and Wired
shop represented everything it
Window’. He dodged and burned and
art
took to contribute to the of worked with the contrast for this chal-
lenging negative for hours. I still remem-
the 20th century up to that point.
ber Ansel’s hands waving magically in
the enlarger light. Two of his trial prints
are still in my possession, and it is clear that the performance of this score required
more practice. The digital control I have over that image now was never possible
before and I can finally show it.
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