Robert Adams on Both Coasts
I have a special affinity for the work of Robert Adams. Adams is one of the great modern photographers of the American West, where I grew up, and I first encountered him through a small picture included in the exhibition essay for Andreas Gursky's MoMA retrospective, a view of tract houses in Colorado Springs. I went to school in Colorado Springs and I think we all have a stronger response to work that has some personal connection. In this case I was just opening my eyes to photography and my initial response was “why’d anyone take that picture? It’s just suburban houses.” But later as I read some of Adams' writing and was able view more of his work, his photos expanded my understanding of what could be a good and beautiful image.
Tomorrow, the Getty will open a retrospective of Adams’ career drawn from its own collection. For the past 40 years he has documented the unfolding relationship between modern settlers and the Western landscape. That photo of tract homes, others of growing shopping malls, the Denver sprawl and the vanishing wilderness all resonate today. I recently visited my wife’s family in northwest Colorado and found Adams’ world again. The Colorado Front Range has been remade as Southern California. What were once a series of isolated communities stretching from Wyoming to New Mexico is now rapidly closing into a single metropolitan zone.
Robert Adams: Landscapes of Harmony and Dissonance
Through May 28 at the Getty Center
1200 Getty Center Drive
Los Angeles, CA
(310) 440-7300
Currently on display at Matthew Marks Gallery (the one on 22th St.) is the Adams exhibition “Turning Back”, a meditation on the changes brought about in the wake of Lewis and Clark’s westward expedition. This project was recently shown at SFMOMA and the museum produced a podcast about the show. The image below compares with Fenton's Valley of the Shadow of Death.
On Humbug Mountain, Clatsop County, Oregon by Robert Adams
Robert Adams: Turning Back
Through Feb 25th at Matthew Marks Gallery
522 W 22nd St
(212) 243-0200
