I can understand my tutors comments with regards to Assignment 4 not being a ‘critical review’ as such. As I read it again I used the ‘book ‘Ansel Adams An Autobiography with Mary Street Alinder, Thames & Hudson 1985’ too much and wrote the piece as if it was an interview rather than a critique. (10 years as a newspaper man may have influenced me in the style and way I wrote the essay). I am please for the feedback and pleased that Keith Roberts pointed out Fred Archers input into the zone system that he developed with Adams in the 1940’s.

The main thing I learnt about Adams by doing this work (as a classically trained musician myself) is the musical terminology and ideas of expression Adams used that I did realise or did not plug into. Extended tonal range, the negative as a score and the print its performances, the subtle changes in tone in a piece of music that a talented musician will also bring to a score. Not a mere rendition of the score but a performance with all the nuance that a talented musician can bring. The same with the photographic negative that a talented photographer can impart and produce in a picture.

However I did I feel gave a reasonable account of my ideas about other photographers work I looked at. Some I liked some not, however even if I did not like the work visually does not mean I did not appreciate the ideas behind the work. I do however feel it is important to try as a photographer to produce imagery that is technically good as much as we can. (Even when the subject is far more important than the result).