Rob Morgan

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The Doctrine Of The Equivalent

Just wrapped a two-week-long run of sold-out shows playing bass with The Blenders for their 2023 Christmas Tour and the entire time, I was ruminating on a quote by one of my favorite photographers, Ansel Adams. (Shared with me via my friend Kurt.)

[Alfred] Stieglitz’s doctrine of the Equivalent as an explanation of creative photography opened the world for me… In showing a photograph, he implied, ‘Here is the equivalent of what I saw and felt.’ That is all I can ever say in words about my photographs; they must stand or fall, as objects of beauty and communication, on the silent evidence of their equivalence.” - Ansel Adams

I became so obsessed with this thought that I even taped the words to the top of my Leica M6, “The Doctrine Of The Equivalent,” and it began to subconsciously show itself in the photographs I made over those two weeks.

Whether they stand or fall…

Here is the equivalent of what I saw and how it all felt to me.