Posted by Rick Denney on June 26, 2002 at 18:56:21:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Persichetti Serenede No. 12 posted by Carole Nowicke on June 26, 2002 at 18:22:59:
Yes, these were part of the Mural Project that he did for the National Park Service in the late 1940's. He made images for installation in park visitor centers.
You can indeed order copies of the prints, but these prints are not made like Ansel Adams made prints. He always called print-making the performance of a score, with the negative being the score (he was a trained concert pianist). So, ordering a print from the National Archive is like asking the local amateur symphony group to record Shosty's 5th. The notes may be there, but it won't be the best reflection of the composer's intentions and may turn out to be a disappointment.
Also, the negatives that are in the Archive are copy negatives. The real negatives remained in Adams's possession, in agreement with the Park Service.
The Mural Project photos were assembled into a book outside the purview of the AA Publishing Rights Trust. As a photographer, I find these representations to be grainy, muddy, and unsatisfying. They lack the clarity of the real thing. I feel sorry for those who know his work only through those images. It would be like knowing Arnold Jacobs only through 78 rpm recordings.
In 1984, I visited the Smithsonian when they had three different exhibitions of Adams going as a result of his recent death. The Mural Project was one of them, but with prints made by him from the original negatives, and the experience shaped me as a photographer in ways I'm still trying to understand. I was similarly affected about that time by hearing my first really good tuba player (Mike Sanders) in an orchestra on a regular basis. I still can't get that sound out of my head.
Rick "who always manages to set unattainable goals" Denney