Sebastiao and Ansel

Well I finally made to the Salgado exhibit in Berkeley, and was pleasantly surprised to get a “two-for”, as there was an Ansel Adams exhibit running too! I hit the Salgado exhibit first. What did I think? In a word, “Wow........”. I was stunned by the images. I did not bother to count them, but there must have been around 250 of Salgado’s images on display. There were several images where traditional rules of composition were broken; like feet cropped off at the bottom of the frame, building tips cropped at the top, and people posed with their faces centered in the image... And they were still incredible, powerful and moving images. All were printed to 16X or 20X, and the darkroom work was masterful. This is a “must see” exhibit in my book. I love the work of Ansel Adams too... And it hurts to say it, but I’ll add this comment at the risk of committing heresy: after Salgado’s work, the Adams images on display seemed like simple postcards...
Cheers,

-- Jack Flesher February 21, 2002