Ansel Adams' 400 Photographs

superb value for money excellent choice of the range of work from this superb photographer

This is possibly one of the largest single-volume collections of Adam's photography. Amongst its photographs, the vast majority being the grand landscapes in which he excelled and which most would expect to be present, are a few surprises. There are a few scattered portraits or character studies which are very atypical. They could be classic Edward Weston, but the book is not about him! The book is brilliantly printed and the text is very much subservient to its wonderful imagery. Knowing just how demanding and controlling Adams was about the reproduction of his images, I would like to think that he would have approved of this book. It has a brief Introduction by Andrea Stillman who had once worked with Adams in the 70s before moving to MOMA, so she would have known him quite well. There is a useful bibliography to close, that may help find other Adams publication should you choose. There is a good appendix at the back which not only provides a reduced-scale version of the image but a segment of Adams notes and writings that relate to it. His note taking was extensive and allowed him to control what he did in the future to such a degree that he could exactly reproduce the exposure in the event that something had gone wrong previously or modify it so as to improve upon it in some way. Extracts from those notes have been separately published in addition to the other instructional and image-oriented books of and by Adams. Whatever the title etc, you cannot make a series error in purchasing any book of Adams' photography. This is no exception. For his landscape work alone, it is a masterwork worthy of study by today's photographers. For those, consider the relative few non-landscape images as a bonus. For the photographer in general, you are seeing a master at work. There has not been a landscape photographer better than Adams; Weston comes close but not quite matching, although his nature photography is supreme. For those reasons, this book is very highly recommended.

Ansel Adams' awe inspiring photographs have been the major inspiration & influence informing my minor attempts at capturing nature in all it's glory. He is the master, I'm just an eager student but I can see the influences in my small scale efforts - he did vast American mountain ranges, I do Welsh hills, he did lakes & rivers, I do ponds & streams, but I can see for certain echoes of his influence in my photographs. That belief has been enhanced by the purchase of this excellent compilation of his wonderous images. I have many larger prints of his work on the walls of my house but while this book doesn't provide the same visual impact the compact nature of this book gives me opportunity to study in detail the composition of the images in order to hopefully further develop my skills. To have so many iconic images in one volume is the ideal companion for anyone who appreciates the true genius of Ansel Adams & an essential purchase.

A must have for anyone interested in landscape photography. Well laid out, well chosen selection of photographs and no heavy reading. The page size and print quality of the book is as expected at this price point. My only minor complaint is that I would have liked to see better utilisation of the page space with larger pictures and smaller borders, particularly at the beginning of the book but also throughout the entire book. It doesn't matter if his early pictures are not very sharp, this is no reason to print them so tiny.

Well received gift

A book of AA’s classic b+w landscape photo’s through his illustrious career in a book-size format that does justice to the photo’s whilst not being so cumbersome as to need a lectern to view it - all round good, thank you.

Just about every photograph in this book shows the absolute beauty and awe inspiring qualities of those landscapes off to perfection. It's arranged chronologically and his first ever photos aren't all that impressive to me; but they make up only the smallest portion of the book and the remaining 380 each have their very own charm. If anything there are too many fantastic photographs - I sometimes find myself flicking through the book and have to stop myself and look more carefully at each photograph to truly admire it.

I bought this book a couple of years ago and found it inspirational. It's the best book of landscape photographs that I have ever seen. The quality of the book itself is second to none and whilst a larger format would have been even better (and more expensive) this is quite sufficient to do the photographs justice in my opinion. I visited Yosemite this summer, largely in order to see the subject of his photographs first hand. Unfortunately I wasn't able to produce pictures remotely as good!