Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs 1ST edition

This is a coffee table like book, and during cold winter nights, when there is nothing on television, I find myself flipping through and studying the beautiful photogrpahs. However, it's just photographs. The short stories or descriptions are few and far between. I guess I epxected to read some of Ansel's thoughts about his approach and technique; what was he thinking while composing a picture. I guess I'll need to find another book for that...

I was very pleased with this beautiful book. I think it is remarkable that it can be sold at such a low price by the store. I am buying several more to give as birthday and Christmas presents. The photos are very impressive, as is to be expected from Ansel Adams. They are titled and most are accompanied by a short commentary.

It provides a good collection of Ansel Adams photographs including many he took as a boy and which really add nothing of value. The print quality is too low to get a true appreciation of Adam's abilities as a photographer and more importantly as a processor and printer of his images. When prints are shown on low quality paper at 5x7 inches or smaller it becomes frustrating to review them in a book such as this.

Ansel Adams was one of the greatest photographers of his time and had a wonderful "clinical eye" to the world around him. This book catch this in a absolute way. Each photo printed itself is a learning. This book it's a real State of Art.

Amazing Book with amazing photos, a must for all photographers.
This book made me think a lot about photography, due to the high quality black and white photography inside, such a great photographer Ansel Adams, with loads of feeling that seems so rare these days...

If you love Ansell Adams, you'll love this chronicle of some of his best works. This was purchased as a present for a budding photographer and is much loved and referred to. A great coffee table book too.

Has every iconic Ansel Adams' photographs. Although due to the size of the book, photographs aren't as big as I would like them to be. If you are fan of Ansel Adams or even if you are not a fan. This is must have book for anyone who loves photography.

Production quality is well below that which we have come to expect from publications of Adams' photgraphs, but for the quantity and price, it's okay. It has many photos which do not commonly make it into the high-priced publications of Adams' work, and upon inspection, you can see why. It's nice to know that Mr. Adams could take more than a few really boring photographs to offset against "Moonrise Over..." Given the extra range of the subject included, it's a bit surprising that none of Adams not-often published [but outstanding] commerical photography is included.

Excellent book. However, Brassai: Paris by Night was shipped along with Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs .
The Ansel Adams book was completely encased in plastic wrap but the book Paris by Night was not. They were shipped together in a cardboard box and left on my front stoop "in the snow". The bottom of the box was sitting in snow. It became saturated and Brassai: Paris by Night, because it wasn't encased in plastic, became wet and damaged. Lesson to learn, wrap the books in plastic when shipping.

Anyone who has been the places that Ansel Adams photographed knows that the horizons he so often captured seem to go all the way to heaven. While in the early days of photography it was difficult to reproduce large images in books, today there is no problem except for publishers assuming that buyers prefer saving money over having the images be of the right size to express their emotional majesty. I will say that the overall reproduction quality is quite good. Not too much is lost in terms of detail from the smaller size of the images, but the emotional impact is clearly lessened. You feel like you are looking at an image rather than imagining yourself in the scene.

That flaw aside, Ms. Andrea Stillman successfully draws on her close contact (pun intended) with Ansel Adams to select excellent examples of his finest and most interesting work. For those who depend on icons to guide the way, she's included lots of those.

Although the book doesn't have much writing in it, I appreciated the notes beginning on page 413 that explained the context of the photographs, methods used, and personal stories related to their taking and exhibition. I think you will, too.

The book is conveniently organized chronologically with facing pages wisely selected to bring out common and contrasting elements in his work.

I especially enjoyed seeing works of his that I hadn't seen before. From this entire collection, I also gained many perspectives on his compositional style and how that evolved over time to be more awe-inspiring.

Nice job!

The idea of this book is wonderful; collect 400 of Ansel Adams' images, enough to explore his long photography career in depth.
The huge problem here is in the execution. The reproductions of the images are horrible - just awful. I can't look at the book without wincing.
Adams made a great effort to create photographs of tremendous tonal depth, with subtle contrast in the middle grays and dramatic contrast on the light and dark tones. The way they are reproduced here does his images
a huge disservice. I believe Adams would be deeply disappointed with this book. The publishing company should be embarrassed - ashamed -
to have produced a book of this terrible quality.

It's no secret that Ansel Adams is an inspiration to any landscape photographer who loves to be outside, and this book is an excellent addition to my collection of photo/art related books.

Ansel Adams - 400 Photographs is the latest book related to Ansel Adams and this collection was compiled by Andrea Stillman, who worked for Adams in the 70s as his personal assistant. She is intimately familiar with his work, and according to the book, have spent much time contemplating what should be included . Her goal was to present a selection of the best images made by Adams during different periods of time (and images are presented chronologically to help us see the development in Ansel's vision), and after finishing reading and looking through the book, I must say that she succeeded.

In this book you will find many of Ansel's famous images, but what I liked particularly that you will also find many images that you have not seen before, especially from his early days and those that were made with his first cameras. For someone like myself who's still a beginning photographer, I was inspired to see how it all started for this legendary photographer. You also will not see these kinds of rare images at usual Ansel's exhibits.

The presentation of those images in terms of their sizes and how they are placed against the white background is eye pleasing. There is not much writing in the book, and Ansel's work speaks for itself, which I found appropriate for a book with such title. In addition, the quality of paper and printing is excellent, which is always important when it comes to photography books.

Due to the amount of images presented in the book I know I'll be looking through it again and again for inspiration, so the book is well worth it. It'll also be a great book to put on a coffee table, when we finally get one for our living room.

"Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs" covers his work from the 1920s through the 1960s, organized chronologically into the largest compilation ever published of his work. Over one-third of the photos took place in the Sierra Nevada mountains - his favorite area. Adams was able to transform geographic reality into moving emotional experiences. Though a passion for the preservation of the natural world guided his photographs, he also included photos of buildings and an occasional individual. Close-ups and long-views, sunny and cloudy days - all were mastered by Adams.

I particularly like to look at these photos before going out with my camera - helps generate ideas.

In response to the other review of this book. The Barnes and Noble edition may have used different photo plates or otherwise reproduced them from a prior printing. The copy I have was printed by Belden Hill Press, and with few exceptions the black and white photos are fine. The exceptions are of President and Mrs. Ford with Adams and an opening ceremony of the Panama Pacific International Exposition. It should be noted that a number of these photo plates came from other institutions and have been reproduced many times, and the master print may or may not have been used in successive printings.

I have ordered Ansel Adams calendars every year for the last 20 years or so. The reproduced photos from his collections are always exceptionally great photos of nature or structures with striking lines and always with a huge depth of field.

Ansel Adams might be the most famous art/nature photographer of all time. He inspired many with his images. In 400 photographs you get far more than a small sampling of a few famous images. This book shows Adams' chronologic development as a photographer. With this format we can not only see his growth but also his depth something that is rare in book under $100. This volume is both something inexpensive and something anyone can be proud to display on ones coffee table.

Everything was as advertised and more! I used this calendar as a Thank You gift for hospitality extended to us while visiting a family in New Zealand in September. Our hostess was thrilled with the gift, and I was pleased with our selection of product. The calendar was packaged expertly and shipped to us quickly. And we were able to carry it in our suitcase easily, without any inconvenience, wear or tear.

This is an outstandong calendar that my daughter asks for and gets from us at Christmas. Over the past two years our UK book stores stopped stocking it. That's where the store comes in..........ordered, and delivered well before estimated delivery time from America via Germany AND even with post & packing charges it was cheaper than walking into a book store in the UK. This is where buying on the web with reputable companies score....door to door service.

This is a great landscape calendar! The pictures by Ansel Adams are wonderful! I use my calendar almost everyday and it is great! It is a fairly large wall calendar and there is ample room to write yourself messages in the square where the date is.
Also, these people are great to do business with, and I'm real particular about that!
Gerald M. Williams
[email protected]

Every year at Christmas time we give an Adams wall calendar to a daughter who is a wonderful photographer and a nature lover. One year we decided maybe it was time to stop doing that, and we heard about it! I'm glad you carry it, because it is not as easily available elsewhere as it used to be.

I have purchased this calendar for years, and always find it to be of the highest quality. The images are well chosen and appropriate for each month.
Photo quality is excellent - I have framed selected images in the past after using the calendar.

I am not a professional photographer but as I cannot afford to buy an original or special print, I thought I would buy this book to remember my Grandfather by. Years ago, 1960's, I was in USA and my Grandfather wanted me to go and meet Ansel Adams but I could not afford to travel from Boston! The photographs are wonderful.
Mrs. Campbell.Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs

Great book, prints are of excellent quality. And photos - this is Ansel Adams, the greatest landscape photographer, there is nothing to say!

However, some pages are blank - photos are simply missing (about 10-20 photos). Maybe it is my bad luck and other copies don't have this problem.

Fantastic book great representation of the entire span of the photographer's career. I would reccomend this book to anybody interested in photography or just a great coffee table book. Plus it is classy quality hardback that the store offers at nearly half the price that the ansel adams website is selling it for.