User:Cullen328/sandbox/Varian

Hello Montanabw,

I have not forgotten your request regarding the Varians. One week ago, Napa and Vallejo, the cities where I spend most of my time, were hit by a 6.0 earthquake. It has been a sad situation filled also with inspiration. Today, my wife, son and I visited damaged historic buildings, and I photographed them for Wikimedia Commons. We stopped by an antique shop we've visited many times before, and they said 80% of their fragile items were destroyed. But not books. I found this, which I hope you can excerpt and use in some way:

WHAT MAJESTIC WORD

In memory of Russell Varian

BY

ANSEL ADAMS

PORTFOLIO FOUR

SIERRA CLUB * SAN FRANCISCO

1963

"The production of a Portfolio of creative photographs of the natural scene seemed from the start to be an appropriate expression of tribute and affecton for Russell Varian. The fact that original prints were considered gave a more intense validity to the project than would obtain from reproductions in a book, no matter how fine they might be. In addition, the excerpts from his writings, and the poetry of his father, John O. Varian, accentuate the highly personal character of this presentation.

In selecting from a considerable number of appropriate images the particular and inevitable photographs for inclusion in the Portfolio I was constantly aware of a man of great intellect and mystical perceptions. To him nature was a fundamental spiritual reality. He was not a place-gatherer, or a mountain-winner, or did he in any way approach the world as prey for egotistical conquest. His Irish forebears, his poet father, his exposure to the subtle beauty of dunes and forests as a youth, and his life-long love affair with the rocks, trees, clouds, lights and storms comprising the vast Divine Performance in which we live, accumulated in him a grandeur of spirit and a magnificence of mind and heart unique in our time.

Hence, every photograph in this Portfolio is related in some direct or indirect way to the places, things and moods Russell Varian loved. In some, the essences of light and space dominate; in others the substance of rock and wood, and the luminous insistence of growing things. Shapes of nature, transformed into what the artist calls forms by the controlled eye and the perceptive spirit, are presented here as the equivalents of experience. Obviously such equivalents could never be inclusive as the experiences are practically infinite. It is my intention to present -- through the medium of photography -- intuitive observations of the natural world which may have meaning to the spectators, just as they might have had meaning to him. And through them I hope that some of the quality, sensitivity and heart of Russell Varian may be revealed -- at least suggested to a world in need of the vast an patient benedictions of nature and the benefactions of noble men."

Carmel, California

October 1, 1963

Ansel Adams