A Few of the Legends

My image today is the front cover of a truly remarkable work of art.  It's a 600 page book by Peter Adams a world renowned photographer in his own right who lives in the Blue Mountains.  The extraordinary fact that he started his journey of producing the book in 1983 and published it in 2020 is the first clue that it is a book of the ages!  I am determined to work my way through reading the stories behind the 280 photographers from around the world who were interviewed and photographed by Peter during the 37 years it took to complete the project.

Adams wrote, "In the past 100 years there are few historical moments that have not been recorded by photographers, but strangely enough, most of the photographers themselves have remained invisible".


Peter has taken an image of every one of the 280 photographers featured in the book.  These are amazing works of art in their own right.  It truly is an extraordinary creation and I'm so happy to have secured a copy.

I have added a couple of links at the bottom of my post - one is an interview with Peter Adams on You Tube which is fascinating viewing.

Here in Peter's own words is the story behind his work of genius.

"When I commenced A Few Of The Legends in 1983, I had no idea how such a seemingly simple idea, born after a boozy lunch with a bunch of inebriated photographers, would result in such a fascinating journey."


"Present were half a dozen luminaries of photography and along with the coffees and the after-dinner-mints, we started playing our own version of photographic Trivial Pursuit - The raising of the flag at Iwo Jima? The Hindenburg Disaster?  The Kent State massacre? Who made those pictures?  No one could remember, and so the idea of A Few of The Legends hdd its conception.  However had I known then what I know now, the outcome might have been different!


"Had I know, for example, how many miles I would travel (roughly 300,000), or how many rolls of films I would use (perhaps 43,000 negatives), how many cars I would hire or flights I would board, or how many crumbling doss houses I would sleep in and, indeed, how many hamburgers I would eat - time constraints meant fast food was the only option - or what the final financial cost would be...


I'm not complaining.  It was an investment in myself.  During the thirty-six years of field trips I made to complete A Few O The Legends, I had attended 500 fascinating, one to one lectures."


"It was a dream education like no other" .............Peter Adams


Ken Duncan Article
You Tube Interview on the book with Peter Adams