?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
THE ART WORLD: "SOMEWHAT UNCONSCIOUS RACKET SUPPORTED BY A ... SHAFT OF STATUS" ADAMS, ANSEL. Typed Letter Signed, "Ansel," to "Dear Nicodemus," complaining of recent crises including a malfunctioning enlarger, expressing relief that Nixon was not elected president, discussing features of newly issued film stock, remarking on the danger of Barry Goldwater's views [concerning Cuban Missile Crisis?], expressing satisfaction at new home [in Carmel Highlands, CA], complaining that Minor [White] sometimes applies the Zone System inappropriately, finding contemporary art unpleasant and obscure, and, in a postscript: "Found a maverick roll of 42 and an old 150, and made a few snaps for you. Lousy pictures. Do not give scale of house. But will show a little of the environment. Module--10 ft upstairs, 8ft downstairs (window height). Large front window 14 feet high. House axis 56 feet. Will send on good pix as soon as can do some final cleaning up outside." 2 pages, 4to, written on recto and verso of a single sheet, personal stationery; horizontal folds. Carmel, 18 November 1962
". . . I feel like the guy who wanted to be a sex maniac but couldn't pass the physical. WHAT a 6 weeks! Awful storm . . . . Then we got the flu . . . . Then my enlarger light went on the fritz. Then I . . . was in the hospital 2 days for tests. I had so many X-rays that I tell all the girls I must be perfectly safe now! But all is OK--I feel wonderful today! Full of beens [sic]! "Just got in the long-awaited new enlarging light. . . . 36 lamps, 50 w each . . . . At full power it puts out the equivalent of more than 7500 watts!! Large prints will take only 30 sec. No reciprocity troubles. Did a test print . . . 20 seconds . . . . Fingers cold, but heart is full of Gleeeeee!!!! "Also the election was quite happy for us. I trust Nixie is Nixed for all time. Just think what would happen if he had been President!!!!!!!! . . . "Hope PC will be OK when released. Sure distressed me because of the low red and yellow saturation. Values beautiful but no red swacko!! The 55 (latest received) is better. Ditto the new 52. Can't agree that it is as good as the 53. THAT was wonderful film! The mental-computer magic picks out the little nuances that defy a densitometer. The densitometers are sensitive in the wrong way! I hope the Print Collection proceeds better in attitude--although I have not heard anything further. I did quite a little space work in that direction. "Gorgeous weather here now. Makes Cuba seem quite impossible! But we must be realistic! It is a real mess. I don't know how else we could have handled it. Barry Goldwater has other ideas, which would end in a vast and mutual BOOM. ". . . I am finished with fretting about fate! . . . I have been very busy and quite happy, and completely delighted with the new establishment. It is getting into shape now and can be photographed. I see more people than I did in S.F.!! "We have to figure some way to get you out here! Maybe when the dust settles after PC is out there will be a new change of mood. The Polaroid book should be out soon; it is sure packed with info. My hunch is that it will go over OK. Am having trouble with Minor and the new terminology for the Zone system. He insists in using Zones for everything. Most people seem to catch on and like the clarifications very much indeed: [diagram showing a line with two poles extending from "subject values" to "print values"]. "Art continues to be obscure, intra-personal, sick, and unpleasant. I saw a lot of new stuff lately and it really gave me pause to wonder! Of course, I may be off the beam and blind to something important, but my hunch tells me it is a great and somewhat unconscious racket supported by a strong shaft of status! . . ."
