plate camera ( 6 v 4 x 8 v 4 with glass plates) 2 that I animal-packed and back-packed over unimaginable miles of rocks and roughness and pointed at amazed landscapes. The results, photographically, were terrible, but the life bent and tempered something that I can never unbend and untemper in this existence - even if I wanted to. There is too much clear sky and clean rock in my memory to wholly fall into sell-illusion. 1 wonder — as I pick this out on the typewriter to you — I wonder if I can bring anything of that absolute honesty into my work and into this experiment of a gallery? If I can make something or show something that will be as inviolate as a piece ol Sierra Granite. You have weathered storms that would put me on the bottom with the old bottles in a week, but I don’t think the public will beat me after-all. You tace the winds like a rock, and I have to stream-line my front. But thank God, there are some people here who understand a little about it - who forget that it’s Art and know it for Something Said about Something Felt.
This is certainly a strange letter - I confess I send it to you with the complete assurance that you will understand it - that you will read between the lines that somebody out here remembers you and would want to talk with you were there not 3,000 miles of Moronia Gigantica separating us. I hope O’Keeffe is progressing and that you are in good shape for the coming season in New York.
Yours ever, Ansel Adams
1 In the early 1930s Adams made many portraits on commission.
2 A Korona view camera, probably Adams’ sixth camera.
FROM PAUL STRAND
Mexico October 14, 1933
Dear Adams -
Please excuse my delay in answering your very nice note. The past few weeks full of things that demanded a great deal of me -
Of course I remember the summer you came to Taos - remember your staying with us - the pleasure of having you play at the hotel, in spite of those surroundings and your hesitancy after so long a time away from a piano - In short my memories of meeting you are all pleasant ones —
I am glad you saw Stieglitz last winter and that he encouraged you - I have no doubt your new work is a development over the things I have seen - probably more direct, a simpler approach to the object — truer to the real qualities of photography — Yes these are critical years for anyone who is alive aware has not insulated himself in some “esthetic” rut - away from the world - The world itself in profound process of change - social change, as it appears to me -
Your new venture of a gallery in San Francisco - does interest me - tor I feel whatever you try to do will be in an honest and un-arty way - Nevertheless I cannot say yes to an exhibition of my things at the present time - Actually I have little interest in exhibitions — because at the basis they seem to be un-American - just a mean and meaningless affair; mean in that they exploit the artist to entertain the public free of charge - meaningless in that they seldom establish any standards -
I turned down three museums last year in just the above terms - Their impudence and complete ignorance of what they are doing is just disgusting - They think that flattery is a substitute - but they can all go to hell as far as I am concerned - for I refuse to be part of that racket - That is my general feeling about exhibitions — I can never get used to the idea that pictures are free entertainment in the U.S., elsewhere too, that the people who claim to enjoy a thing never support the individual who makes what gives them pleasure - Flowever this isn’t a specific answer to your question. First the difficulty of sending anything out of Mexico - which is considerable - and 1 have most of my work here - The balance is in storage in New York - But in addition I don’t like to let these prints go out of my hands (they exist for the most part in only one example), to be handled by express or mail carriers - customs inspectors, etc. They are not the usual tough gaslight print and a scratch means ruination - So for the present it doesn’t seem feasible. Perhaps some day I will get to Frisco again and that would be different - All this I hope you will understand and not feel me to be merely uncooperative -
Last February 1 did have a show here under the auspices of the Government. The best part of it was the democratic character of the people who came. Some 3,000 in 10 days - The Gallery opens onto a main street, so that all sorts came in - middle class - workmen in blue jeans, soldiers, Indians - many children - How much or how little the things meant to these simpler people, 1 cannot know - But to see them entertained me - and it is seldom one gets any pleasure out of one’s own exhibitions.
I have worked hard here - started new problems - and have taken up lines of work started way back in 1915. Now I have been made director of motion picture work in connection with the Department of Fine Arts - Secretaria of Education and that offers the greatest problems to solve - We hope to begin work soon -
Thanks for what you say about the prints you saw in New York and Santa Fe.
I wonder what things you saw at Stieglitz for 1 didn’t know he had anything around. Also where and what you saw in Santa Fe.
I would always be glad to hear from you - and about you - both your own work and the gallery - In both, my best wishes -
Greetings - Paul Strand
FROM ALFRED STIEGLITZ
New York City October 20, 1933
My Dear Ansel Adams:
I’ll make one more attempt to write to you. Since I received your letter in Lake George on Sept. 25th I have made four distinct attempts to write - that is, have started four letters. But every time I was taken away. It’s one hell of a time I have been going through. Everything seems to be piling up like the straws on the proverbial camel’s back. . . . Well I got down here to the Place on Oct. 1st & single handed . . . I have whipped The Place into shape & it was never quite so magnificent. The Marin Exhibition is a very grand affair. It will be neglected I know. But that makes no difference. So was the Cezanne Show in 1911 at “291.” 1 This Exhibition is perhaps the apex of my lifework. — One can’t tell about it. It must be seen. In the meantime the racketeering in the so-called world ol art becomes more & more brazen & engulfing. - The sordidness of it all is appalling & every one coming into touch with Art is more or less contaminated by it <8c perfectly unaware ol that tact. That’s really my fight & has been all these years. — Integrity of endeavor means nothing to the American people. Nothing whatever. Still I fight on & shall till I drop. — O’Keeffe is still at the Lake - & still a very sick woman. She is well out of this all for it is very terrible in spite of the outward calm & peace which seems to reign here. As for your idea about an O’Keeffe-Stieghtz Show my dear man I understand only too well about the starved souls in San Francisco as well as elsewhere. - But what you ask for is absolutely impossible - physically impossible as well as otherwise impossible. The O’Keeffes are needed here. I dare not risk them out. She is not painting. May never pamt again. As I know what they do here primarily to the Europeans that come here they are amazed. Marin amazes them too. And so do my photographs. As for the latter they hardly exist for me. No I cannot spare the energy to go through them & send you a lot for exhibition even at your place. You know I hate the very idea ol all exhibitions for exhibitions as such are rarely true. - Have no fundamental significance. - Are “entertainers” & not enlighteners. I know whereof I speak. I know my America & know the American character. It’s very hard for me to write you in the spirit in which I do but I cannot do otherwise. And I know altho’ you’ll be disappointed you’ll not feel hurt nor will you think I “might” if I had any good will. It’s all a long long story which never will be told & if told but few, if any, would understand.
My greetings to you & your wife. I hope the latter & child are thriving & that you are a happy husband & happy father
Stieglitz
1 Stieglitz directed The Little Galleries of the Photo Secession (nicknamed “291”) at 291 Fifth Avenue, New York City, from 1905 to 1917, where Paul Cezanne had his first American exhibition in 1911.
TO ALFRED STIEGLITZ
San Francisco October 23, 1933
Dear Alfred Stieglitz,
Your good letter of Oct. 20th came this morning. I hope you did not feel worried about any delay in answering my letters - I fully understand the difficulties of your life at present, and I am more than grateful that you write me at all. . . .
Yes, I do understand your attitude about sending exhibits of yours and O’Keeffe’s work out here. Perhaps I have been too forward in asking you for them, but I felt that you would interpret my request for what it was - a sincere reflection of the desire of many of us to see those marvelous things. However, they will exist in New York, and it is some comfort to know that.
I would like to write you at some length sometime about your attitude. I am wondering, and it may be presumptuous to say it, if you have not been bitten so severely during your life that you present an all-enfolding armor to the world which keeps both the good and bad from you; or rather, which protects and prohibits at the same time. After all, there is only a handful of souls that care and know - in all the world there is only a handful. But they - that handful - are not all tagged so that we can perceive them at a glance. They are hidden away in the vast pile of humanity, and we can’t see in and they can’t always see out. If you bring a light close enough they may be able to see it and respond. ... I am with you in spirit - had I the means I would contribute to the limit to what you are doing; I would buy O’Keeffes, Marins, your things. I would do what else 1 could to support the most remarkable institution in America - I think you and your place is just that.
There may be obscure people in obscure places that need but the touch of a rare beauty to awaken them to the highest things. And what is the function of great art but to do just that - to kindle something of a flame in the human material that is ready to burn? I am one of the thousands that have come to your place - perhaps I am one of the very few that went away with even a fragmentary understanding of the great thing you are doing. But it is just a fortunate scries of circumstances that permitted my visit to New York.
I am not complaining about your attitude, nor am I indicating that I do not agree and understand. The situation, as it exists, is more than hard - is more than discouraging. But has the actual existence of art ever been otherwise? Or of creative thought? There has been more than one crucifixion.
I got a very cordial letter from Paul Strand from Mexico. Same ideas. Exhibitions are free entertainment. Beauty and wonder and magnificence for only the walking into a gallery - for only the simple physical effort of transporting the corporeal carcass so that the more corporeal mind can collect a few thrills and have something to talk about.
Right - 99%. What about the other i%? or the remaining l Ao of i%? What is it all about anyhow?
What is to be the solution of the question? Would an enlightened proletariat bring art into its own? Or does it require a super-cultured and wealthy aristocracy to support the phosphorescent glows of surface-civilization? Is the whole thing a surface, two-dimensional shadow, or does it go deep after all? Does it probe deep like a needle in the flesh of humanity - at isolated spots, or is it some sort of a rash on the outer skin?
Are you breaking your spiritual and physical neck to both present and preserve your art in the face of a huge indifference?
Frankly, it isn’t worth your neck. It is not so much the art as what you have expressed through it - I refer to Marins, O’Keeffes,
Doves, 1 Stieglitzes - all together. I should not be surprised if the future histories of Art will define you and your group with equal significance to the post-Renaissance high-spots; perhaps of more importance.
But that’s the future. Now - you are still a living, breathing human being who deserves at least a little peace, a little relaxa- Boards and Thistles, South San Francisco,
tion. You have done enormous things, but tgj2 (from Delphic Studio exhibition)
for God’s sake don’t forget that your own
self - your own spirit - is more important. Without you these things would not exist. Without your vision — God knows where photography would be.
No matter how hard you toil and fight - you cannot make a Moron understand a Marin. What I am trying to get at is this - why not let yourself ease up a bit now and trust the slight residuum (Humanity minus the morons) to come as they will. Let them do a little of the work. I am doing my little bit for you here - I wish I could do more. But I remember you - and I read into your letters - as a swift vortex of defensive energy, which, after all, has done its work these many years, and now deserves a little peace. I think there is a small army of people who would hasten to support your standards were they only reached. They extend over the world. All that is needed is an organization — a sort of brotherhood. I don’t mean charity - I mean understanding. . . .
I am continuing this on Nov. 6th: things have been so rushed that I have not had the chance to finish it before this.
My god!! I sent off my New York show 2 yesterday morning. It goes with two or three prayers and a certain off-hand mood that amuses me with myself. Most of the things you have seen - I have been so swamped with the place here and com-