Ansel Adams’ True Greatness

Re “Ansel Adams, in Sharper Focus” (by Judith Coburn, Aug. 12): The article seems to be urging art lovers to view the centennial of Adams’ craft because of his choice of landscapes, his decisions on composition, and the ability to capture a scene at the optimum time of day.

If Coburn hadn’t dropped the word “photography” in occasionally, you might think Adams worked in oils or watercolors. Photographers, working in black-and-white, know that anyone can travel to Yosemite and take the identical pictures he did. What makes him great, and is never mentioned in Coburn’s and curator John Szarkowski’s praise, is his mastery of the silver gelatin medium, his total control of the tonal scale and tonal separation.

Adams could produce a symphony of light and dark out of a piece of film and printing paper that leaves amateur photographers like myself spending a lifetime trying to emulate.

WILLIAM VIETINGHOFF

Thousand Oaks