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This article originally appeared on LPV Magazine*. We thought our readers would enjoy it so we asked authors Bryan Formhals and Blake Andrews if we could re-post it here, to which they graciously agreed.*
Formhals got the idea for this column after reading The 10 Most Harmful Novels for Aspiring Writers. He came up with five photographers for his list and asked Andrews to contribute the other five. Here they are.
### Ansel Adams
Adams created some remarkable images and he wrote the book (literally) on photographic technique. Yet on the whole he’s probably done more harm than good for photography. How many young photographers have fussed over which zone to put the shadows in while the light fades and the photo disappears? More importantly, how many perfectly exposed black and white vistas of snow-capped peaks or rivers snaking into the background do we need to see? Yes, nature is majestic. We get it. Saint Ansel showed us, and he did it better than you ever will, so move on already or we’ll score your performance as a negative.
-- Blake Andrews
Photo: Ansel Adams, 'Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico,' 1941.
Bryan Formhals lives and works in New York. He is the founder and managing editor of LPV Magazine, a thrice-yearly publication dedicated to contemporary documentary and fine art photography. Blake Andrews is a photographer based in Eugene, OR. He writes the photoblog B.
