mark_l3

"Ansel Adams and his incredibly manipulated prints"

don't forget his incredibly manipulated negatives.....

Funny how the photograph looks exactly the same after it's thought to be manipulated as it did before.

"If manipulation doesn't matter, what does the phrase "good eye" mean??

"good eye" refers to anything and everything, to do effective manipulation you must have a good eye.

"As a fellow photographer, don't you want to know what he saw??

no, if I did, I would just go there and see it for myself. a literal interpretation is nothing compared to the real thing. I do however want to see his ARTISTIC interpretation of the subject matter.

"A landscape is meant to be appreciated as the photographers portrayal of a specific place"

who says? I've never done a landscape for this purpose. I see something that moves me to photograph and I interpret it as I see fit. It's my art and I'll cry if I want to.

I don't understand this obsession with the idea that photographs are to represent only what the physical eye sees and not the mind's eye. Leave that to photojournalism and documentary work.