The fine photographs of Alan Ross
can be experienced as sophisticated black-and-white
still lifes or grand landscapes. His work is reminiscent
of his teacher, Ansel Adams, yet has a distinct
personal style.
After his 1971 graduation from the University
of California, Berkeley, with a BA in Design/Photography,
Alan Ross began his illustrious career in photography
serving as assistant in the M. Halberstadt studio
in San Francisco. As an apprentice there he practiced
black-and-white and color illustration photography,
general studio, and darkroom techniques. After
three years of studio work, he started freelancing
as a commercial photographer until joining Ansel
Adams in Carmel as his photographic assistant
from 1974-79.
Since 1975 he has printed
the Ansel Adams Special Edition Photographs
of Yosemite, a program that Ansel started
in the 1950s. Ross prints these thirty
images of Yosemite, all 8"x 10"
in the manner in which Adams would have
printed them.
Ross has taught numerous workshops for
the Ansel Adams Gallery, University of
California Extension, RIT, The Friends
of Photography, Ilford Photographic, and
photo tours to China (1981,1983).
His work is widely exhibited and collected.After
many years of operating his own commercial
studio in San Francisco, Ross moved with his
wife and daughter to Santa Fe, New Mexico.
When I first went to work as Ansel's assistant,
one of the things that struck me the most
was the realization, while going through boxes
and boxes of his work, that he had made an
awful lot of very ordinary photographs! I
was somewhat stunned to learn that he had
no illusions and no expectations that every
film he exposed would wind up being another
one of what he fondly called his 'Mona Lisa's.
As an awe-struck young photographer in the
presence of The Master, this revelation was
an incredible relief to me; it came as a release
from the burden of expecting myself to produce
only perfection. It was better to experiment
and try things that might work, and openly
and simply respond to feelings than to over
intellectualize. In fact I soon came to learn
that one of Ansel's favorite phrases was "The
Perfect is the enemy of the Good!"
