This is also true for me. I only discovered the "truth" about AA's prints
about 1 year or so ago. My respect and interest level in his work went down
proportionally to the amount of work he put into the manipulation (a lot).
For me, that amount of manipulation, whether in a traditional darkroom, or in
a computer, affect my regard for the print, from "Wow!" to "That's nice..."
George S.
williams@xxxxxxxxxx writes:
Adams was such a strong proponent of the Zone System that I'd always assumed
he made "straight" prints. (After all, the Zone System is intended to "fit"
the tonal scale of the image to the final print.)
It was only recently that I learned that Adams commonly burned, dodged, and
performed all sorts of manipulations to get the final image he wanted.
We are so caught up in the philosophy of "photography as truth" that we
forget the negative is just the starting point.
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