You may think you know everything you need to know about the work of photographer Ansel Adams. John Szarkowski wants to convince you otherwise.
Szarkowski, who organized “Ansel Adams at 100,” an exhibit that opens at the Art Institute of Chicago on Thursday, has been helping people look at pictures in a new way for decades. As the director of the department of photography at the Museum of Modern Art from 1962-1991 and the author of the classic 1973 book “Looking at Photographs: 100 Pictures from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art,” he is one of the leading photography experts of this century. And since Szarkowski was a friend of Adams, not to mention an expert on his work, we asked the curator to give us his insights on several of the photograghs — some famous, others not as well known — that he chose for the current exhibit.
