Ansel Adams 2019 Wall Calendar Calendar – Wall Calendar, 24 July 2018

This is my first purchase of an Ansel Adams calendar and is a varied selection of photographs by the master photographer. However, two of the prints are of a much higher quality in my second edition copy of the book Ansel Adams: Yosemite and the High Sierra, which is nearly 25 years old. Seeing that the photographs are only a tad smaller in the book, the quality of these same two prints in the calendar should be the same, yet clearly are not.Both are printed by Little, Brown & Company, which is "the sole authorized publisher of Adams’ work and rigorously supervised by The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust to make certain that Adams’ exacting standards of quality are maintained." (this info is on the back of the calendar)That’s quite a standard to bear aloft – a standard which is currently sagging under the effort of professionalism, while its lower corner is trailing in the late-Spring mud of Yosemite’s well-trodden valley floor.January 2019 opens with the stunning photograph: Winter Sunrise, Sierra Nevada, from Lone Pine, California, 1944, which also happens to be my favourite image in the calendar. Yet it is printed in noticeably greater contrast than the same image in the book, to the point of blowing out the highlights in the over-white mountains and losing detail in the adjacent darker mountain which divides the image almost in half. It’s a very bold division of light and dark to start with, but in the calendar the over-done contrast is quite uncomfortable on the eye, unlike the more pleasing image in the book.If I thought I was ‘being a little picky’, I then compared August’s photograph: Siesta Lake, Yosemite National Park, California, c. 1958 to the one in the book and once again there is far more contrast than there should be. The trees on the distant shoreline have lost almost all of their detail and have turned into an unsightly blot of black, inky patches with a few tree trunks poking through!This is not how Adams intended his photographs to look, I am quite sure. The artist is no longer with us, but that doesn’t mean the same care needn’t be taken with his image reproductions as if he were still alive, and so I am speaking out on the artist’s behalf against these two poor-quality reproductions from the rich legacy of images he left for future generations to enjoy. I can’t comment on the other 10-12 photographs, having no corresponding images with which to compare them, but I presume they are also of poorer quality than are depicted elsewhere.In today’s era of ever-declining standards, perhaps the print quality of this calendar shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. These images weren’t taken with a phone camera to be shared on the latest digital platfwith a selecorm; they were taken with professional equipment by a professional photographer who was also an artist of the highest caliber. If The Trust and the publishing company wish to make money off the deceased artist's life’s work, this calendar should present us with a selection of reproduced prints that would have met with Mr. Adams’ approval. To do otherwise is a betrayal of the trust he placed in both parties.

Wish I had come across this calendar before, the Ansel Adams photos are perfect, I have been to Yosemite and it is such an amazing place that every photo you take is beautiful in colour or black and white.

Great photos, superb quality, we have bought this wall calendar for many years now and it has never disappointed.

The item arrived promptly and in good condition. It was all that I expected it to be. Thank-you.

Another 13 fine examples of Adams' work.

Good product and good service. Very happy with this !

My brother was very happy with this as a Christmas present

I love it