“Ron, today you are going to see like Ansel”

Learning by inspiration of master photographers

“Ron, today you are going to see like Ansel” became my mantra as I trekked my tripod and Mamiya RB67 medium format camera through the woods, trying not to step on ferns lest I needed them for subject matter.

At 180 pounds, I was not a ballerina, yet I tried to walk like one, delicate steps, total balance, and graceful, barely touching the earth and avoiding what we called “soakers” as kids, your boots fully immersed in a deep hidden puddle. I wanted to be invisible to the world, just my soul seeking the perfect location, driven by intuition versus reason.

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Summer 1978.

As a young photographer, I learned by imitation. I loved the work of Ansel Adams for his epic landscapes and mastery of his black & white prints.

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Summer 1978.

Photographer Edward Weston inspired me through his range of styles, so much that I wrote a term paper entitled “Edward Weston: From Eros to Thanatos” using a couple of Greek words to impress my college professors. Weston could make a contorted green pepper from the garden look like an elegant nude in his younger years and later in life, he would photograph the California Big Sur coast as if death had a name. I wondered how Weston felt when he was shooting - could I channel the same energy? I wanted to learn how Weston lived, what drove his creativity. Did he worry as much about the right f/stop and camera settings as I did? Today, one of his prints, a nude study of a woman rolling down a sand dune, hangs in the hallway of my home.

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Summer 1978.

And then there was Ralph Gibson. His images took me to a new place where dreams and images intertwine into an ethereal world of conceptual hallucination. Ralph inspired my drive to make people feel something they couldn’t name, like the performance of an orchestral masterpiece where the music happens between the notes.

Some days, my imitation of the masters would work, as I would envision a gallery full of my images. Other days, I just got my feet wet in a puddle, a novice ballerina carrying pricey camera gear.

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Summer 1978.

Images in this story are from my days inspired by Ansel Adams.

Technical: Shot with a Mamiya RB67 camera and wide angle lens, on Kodak Tri-X black & white 120mm film.