The prominence of the large-format photograph in contemporary art since the 1970s is often attributed to the desire to explore new pictorial and spatial avenues by moving beyond the documentary approaches that had dominated since the 1930s. While not an inaccurate characterisation, the focus upon the artistic impulses associated with large-scale photography comes at the expense of the material issues that enabled it. This article addresses the gap by examining two largely overlooked forms produced by Ansel Adams between 1930 and 1960 – the photomural and the folding photo-screen – in order to demonstrate the high level of direct engagement that existed between photographer and materiality, which resulted in large-scale works that addressed many of the same issues dealt with in contemporary large-format photography, but that also stood in stark contrast to the ephemeral, mass-produced, large-scale work prevalent at the time. By considering historical examples, from an era when materials and processes were very different, the article demonstrates the active, physical effects of photographic enlargement, revealing print size to be not simply a changeable option but an inherently material condition, honing our understanding of why a photograph is big by demonstrating how it got that way.

中文翻译：

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大图景：安塞尔亚当斯大型作品中尺寸的重要性

自 1970 年代以来，大幅面照片在当代艺术中的突出地位通常归功于超越自 1930 年代以来占主导地位的纪实方法来探索新的图像和空间途径的愿望。虽然不是不准确的描述，但对与大规模摄影相关的艺术冲动的关注是以牺牲促成它的物质问题为代价的。本文通过研究 Ansel Adams 于 1930 年至 1960 年间创作的两种很大程度上被忽视的形式——照片壁画和折叠照片屏幕——来解决这一差距，以展示摄影师和物质之间存在的高度直接接触，这导致了大量- 解决了当代大画幅摄影中处理的许多相同问题的大规模作品，但这也与当时盛行的短暂、批量生产的大型作品形成鲜明对比。通过考虑历史例子，从一个材料和工艺非常不同的时代开始，文章展示了摄影放大的积极的物理效果，揭示了打印尺寸不仅仅是一个可变的选择，而是一个固有的物质条件，磨练我们对为什么一个通过展示它是如何得到的，照片是大的。