VIEWFINDER

The Return of Ansel
"THE FUTURE IS SIMPLY THE PAST crouching in the present.” Or so I was told as a student at Arizona State University. This revelation came about the same time I interned at Arizona Highways magazine.

Little did I know that an incident involving the lowly task of organizing photographs in filing cabinets would educate me about the cyclical world we live in. Sometimes, only in looking backward do we realize that things appear as if they were all laid out according to a master plan. Inspiration and vision, coupled with courage and a dash of luck, can form a perfect storm out of which true magic is manifest, much like Arizona Highways.

Tom Cooper, the magazine’s editor in 1978, assigned me to sort and organize what seemed to be a room filled with filing cabinets containing black-and-white photographs. These were archives on loan from contributors to be used as the editors needed. One of the cabinets was stocked with yellowed mat boards, each containing multiple images. A plain rubber-stamped inscription affixed to each read simply, “Ansel Adams.” The quality of the images wasn’t very good, but I was assured these were work prints for review and not for actual reproduction. The final selections were printed specifically for the magazine’s use and called in later as needed. These assemblages were acquired in the early 1950s, born out of a wonderful relationship that developed between Adams and then-Highways editor, Raymond Carlson.

I recently found some correspondence reflecting the enthusiasm of both the photographic genius and Carlson, the “philosophical architect” of Arizona Highways. What began as a strictly working relationship between the two men grew rapidly into a genuine friendship. Their mutual respect for each other generated visual concepts that spawned brilliant photographic essays filling the pages of the magazine from 1952 to 1954.

“I am pregnant with ideas!!!!” wrote Adams to Carlson on March 14, 1953. “Maybe there will be a multiple birth!! Luff to you and yours.”

Ansel Adams’ style, the unique vision, powerful foregrounds and dramatic use of light was a catalyst that slowly transformed the look of the publication from its documentary roots into the stylistic and inspired magazine it is today. Looking back, it’s as if it was meant to be.
 

Sorting the images geographically, I waded through the collection, bin by bin. As I got to the bottom drawer of one cabinet, I noticed something different about one of the mats. Peaking out from beneath the now-familiar boards was a different color and texture. Anxious and curious, I hurried to uncover it. What I held in my dusty hands was amazing. I held an 11-by-14-inch finished black-and-white image of White House Ruin mounted on rag board. This wasn’t a work print. It wasn’t discolored or stamped. It was signed by Ansel Adams, master photographer. A legend. I would be lying if I told you I didn’t think long and hard about a new personal acquisition. How long had this stuff been here? Who, if anyone, knew about this particular image?

After some serious soul-searching, I walked into Tom’s office and laid the print on his desk, suggesting it needed to be properly displayed, either in our offices or possibly in my apartment. It was his call.

Needless to say, it was cleaned up, meticulously framed and hung appropriately at the magazine, a reminder of our heritage. 

Those long-forgotten work prints were recently donated to the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. A fitting destination considering the center retains the archives of Adams and many other great 20th-century photographers. Among the notables are Edward Weston, Richard Avedon, Lola Alvarez Bravo and W. Eugene Smith. Not only is this an amazing repository and research center for students and educators, but it’s also open to the public, free of charge. Individuals and groups are invited to view works in the art collection by advance appointment, having selected the photographs they would like to view. I sometimes wonder if anyone ever asks to see the Adams/Arizona Highways work prints.

If you’re in Tucson, check out the center. Who knows, maybe there’s a budding Ansel in our midst, searching for just the right conditions to set the wheels of inspiration in motion. Maybe it will happen to you, and your future will be realized by looking ever so closely at the past. 

For more information, contact the Center for Creative Photography, (520) 621-7968; www.creativephotography.org/.