If you want to know what's really going on in 'Zone Eleven,' in which Mike Mandel applies "his incisive editing eye to the surely daunting Ansel Adams archive," read this deep dive by Loring Knoblauch for Collector Daily. (linked in bio) Knoblauch writes, "After spending time with it, this book doesn’t seem aimed at being a discovery vehicle for the unseen Adams (which it is indirectly), but a constrained sandbox in which Mandel can play." He concludes, "Would the traditionalist Adams have approved of this offbeat exercise, or enjoyed the results? Who’s to say, but it’s hard not to think he would have been at least somewhat enchanted (and flattered) by Mandel’s meticulous looking. The images in 'Zone Eleven' won’t be remembered as Adams’ finest, but Mandel still treats them with respect – in fact, he engages with them so deeply and seriously that they begin to break down, losing their original context and becoming something else. Using Adams (of all photographers) to make an argument about the enduring power of appropriation and recontextualization is a flash of risk taking few would even consider, but Mandel has pulled it off with panache and grace. 'Zone Eleven' is the kind of photobook that simmers with so much intelligence that you’ll want to push it on Adams fans and skeptics with nearly equal enthusiasm. It thoughtfully asks us to question not only what we think we know about Adams, but also to broadly consider the many ways a photograph can function." # LoringKnoblauch #mikemandel #zoneeleven #anseladams https://www.instagram.com/p/CZ2Yx_bJ-Ut/?utm_medium=tumblr
