Ansel Adams - At The Waters Edge

I’ve always been a fan of Ansel Adams’s work, since my first photography lesson at art college, so when I heard there was going to be an exhibition of his work, in Greenwich, minutes walk from the studio, I was pretty excited and eager to go.

The National Maritime Museum is usually open late on Thursdays, but we had seen, on their website, that on this Thursday in particular they were having a special Ansel Adams late, “At the Waters Edge”, with workshops such as making your own prints.

I tried to book tickets online, but I couldn’t. I then tried to book tickets for the exhibition that evening. I couldn’t. So I called the booking line. They had no idea what I was talking about.

After several phone calls and some confusion we had tickets to the exhibition on the evening of the Ansel Adams late and were informed that there would, indeed, be workshops and special events that evening.

Images so sharp and clear, taken in a way that the human eye alone could never replicate. Simply breathtaking.
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We turned up at the Maritime Museum and found our way to the exhibition. We handed our tickets to the ladies at the door, and were informed that the exhibition would be closing in 45 minutes to prepare for a special talk with Ansel Adams’s son, it was a separate, ticketed, and sold out event.

Rather disgruntled we headed in to the exhibition.

Despite the disorganisation that surrounded the ticketing, and what this special late event had on offer, the exhibition was worth the hassle.

I thought I knew what to expect, I’ve seen his photographs online and in books, but there is something special about seeing a print, physically and up close. Each and every image was absolutely beautiful. Images so sharp and clear, taken in a way that the human eye alone could never replicate. Simply breathtaking.

I was spell bound.

If we didn’t have a time limit I could have stayed looking at the photographs for hours, unfortunately we did. We had to leave so we went in search of the workshops.

Struggling to find the workshops, we found a man, separated from a rehearsing choir, singing on the stairs leading to the exhibition. Fearing some sort of flash mob about to break out, we decided it was time to go home.

An absolutely fantastic, well thought out exhibition that I would implore anyone to go to, so long as they are not booted out after 45 minutes.