Photography Exhibition Ansel Adams and Jim Krantz: The Way West

Each a photographic pioneer in his own right, Adams is well known for majestic black and white landscapes of the American west while Krantz occupies a unique place in the history of contemporary art for his western images that have become iconic depictions of American popular culture.

The Adams/Krantz pairing is not without reason as Krantz studied with Adams in the mid ’70’s, where Adams taught workshops from his home. Driving from Omaha, Nebraska to Carmel at the age of 18 to study with the master, Krantz attended multiple week long workshops throughout his college years and was one of Adams’ most promising students. Becoming a full-time professional photographer at the age of 22, and one of America’s most successful commercial photographers by the age of 30, Krantz credits Adams for his attention to light and composition.

Krantz remembers Adams telling him one thing in particular: “Technical proficiency leads to artistic freedom”. While the unpredictable elements of a photograph were (to a large extent) the weather for Adams and action for Krantz, pre-visualizing the final image, composition, and perspective was key for both photographers. A strong point of commonality for the two men is that each sought the mythological moment in the real while pushing the boundaries of their medium with the emotive and technical quality of their negatives and prints.

Since Adams’ death in 1984, the quality and consistency of his work rank him as one of the great masters of the medium. Meanwhile Krantz has pursued his passion for photography combining his fine art work with assignments for such notable clients as GQ and Marlboro. Most recently Krantz has collaborated with the cutting edge urban fashion brand Supreme and Los Angeles furniture company Modernica whose original Eames manufacturing equipment embedded eight of Krantz’s western images onto their classic fiberglass “Shell” chairs.

Read more at www.danzigergallery.com