This episode of "The American Experience" is about the great outdoor photographer, Ansel Adams. I was very interested in seeing this, as like so many people, I love his work. However, I was surprised that the show was so very talky. The greatness of Ansel Adams' work is that it is sublime---something you really cannot adequately explain in words. Yet, often, folks because waxing quite poetic about him and they talked and talked and talked. To me, understanding Adams is to learn about his life and also just to see his work--it speaks for itself and is VISUAL poetry. I also think this problem was exacerbated by the film being much longer than an ordinary one-hour show (the time format of the series greatly from one hour to much, much longer shows that are multi-part). Had the show focused more on his life and art, it could have been done quite well in one hour. Overall, while there is lots of interesting stuff (such as how he was tempted to throw away his marriage but didn't), too much talk make this one of the hardest of the series episodes to enjoy. My advice, just buy a book or go visit the places he photographed.
By the way, one of the talky things I didn't like was how one guy REPEATEDLY used the word 'evanescent'....huh?!
By the way, one of the talky things I didn't like was how one guy REPEATEDLY used the word 'evanescent'....huh?!