Two very different photography exhibitions currently grace the walls of San Francisco’s MoMA, and both photographers are among America’s most iconic when it comes to the visual image.

Richard Avedon (July 11- November 29, 2009)
Ansel Adams (May 30- September 7, 2009)

Thursday evenings tickets are half priced and the lines were wrapping around the block. The comprehensive retrospective of Avedon’s work, spanning his entire career, is the feature show and special exhibit (meaning there is additional entry fee of $5)- entitled simply, “Richard Avedon, Photographs 1946-2004.” While the exhibit included a smattering of his famed magazine editorial fashion shots, as well as street scenes from the 1950’s, it was by and large a collection of black and white portraits.

Avedon’s portraits are charged with expression, and for being still images, contain a remarkable amount of motion. The who’s who of the last few decades come alive as a visual encyclopedia of pop cultural icons. Walking along the walls, viewers played their own guessing games, identifying as many celebs as possible without looking at the photo captions. Of course, there were the Beatles (each with his own portrait, to fully appreciate the nuance in each of their expressions, each of their personas apart from one another), Groucho Marx, Janis Joplin, Bob Dylan, Marilyn Monroe, Twiggy, Bjork, you name it- he or she was probably photographed by Avedon, and quite likely in this show.

All of Avedon’s subjects were photographed against a white wall, illuminating the power of their presence, the viewer undistracted by an environment that would inherently change the contextual perception of the person, and the photograph. And so, what struck me most in Avedon’s work was how ordinary the stars looked, and how extraordinary the lay person seemed.

The lay person, carnies, vagabonds, migrant workers, pre-pubescent youth cast a gaze of jaded self assuredness, radiating a cynical charisma. Luis, the farmer has strong cheekbones, classic good looks. The many wrinkles in the vagabond’s face invite intrigue: what is his story? What is the carney’s story? I want to hear them more than Bob Dylan’s. The rich look weary, while the working class subjects captivate- perhaps it is Avedon’s approach and relationship with his subjects that he can coax the model out of everyone, modeling and candor blurred into one. This blending speaks to his agility and mobility across photography’s genres as well, deftly mixing fashion, photojournalism and fine art.

Ansel Adams, on the other hand, focuses his attention and lens on the natural beauty of the West and Southwest. His stark and stunning landscapes, like the mesa plains of New Mexico, or the densely forested vantages of Yosemite, frame the magnificence of nature as sublime, whether in its simplicity or compositional complexity . Few besides Adams can photograph a snowbank, or moonrise, or the splay of some pine needles, and bring one near to tears.

Shown in conjunction with Georgia O’Keefe, the show sought to mirror their work against one another: in many instances pairing his photograph with her painting, showing the same subject (whether it be the Taos Pueblo, a small church in Rancho Santa Fe, or view of the mountains) rendered through their respective mediums. As longtime friends, they also found a shared muse in the enchanting terrain of New Mexico. O’Keefe’s vibrantly colorful paintings play between abstract and figurative, and paired surprisingly well aesthetically with Adams’ black and white photographs. There was less dissonance than I expected.

If you are anywhere near San Francisco- get yourself to the MoMa. Even if you’ve seen Ansel Adams’ works before, don’t shortchange yourself the opportunity to re-experience the sublime power of nature’s beauty, captured by one of America’s greatest photographers. For those interested in those that make American pop culture what it was and is- whether celebrity or circus worker- here is a chance not just to get peer into their eyes but perhaps also their souls, and a chance to marvel at the action, passion and emotion of Avedon’s work.