Pawnee National Grasslands

By Robert Adams, Pawnee National Grasslands, Colorado, 1984

on old masters

 “Among the most compelling truths in some of the early photographs is their implication of silence.”

Robert Adams

you have photography

“I’ve been so lonely trying to become a photographer. If I’d known that before, I don’t know if I had the courage to do it again. You get to a point where you feel that you have something that is your own. And if you don’t find an audience for it, you are going to burst.”

Robert Adams

Mobile Homes

Photo by Robert Adams,

Jefferson County, Colorado, 1973

Colorado Springs

Photo by Robert Adams

‘Colorado Springs, Colorado’ 1968 gelatin silver print

photography, time and space

“…if we consider the difference between William Henry Jackson packing in his cameras by mule, and the person stepping out of his car to take a picture with an Instamatic, it becomes clear how some of our space has vanished; if the time it takes to cross space is a way by which we define it, then to arrive at a view of space ‘in no time’ is to have denied its reality.”

Robert Adams

Robert Adams on photography

“Why do most great pictures look uncontrived? Why do photographers bother with the deception, especially since it so often requires the hardest work of all? The answer is, I think, that the deception is necessary if the goal of art is to be reached: only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that beauty is commonplace.”

Robert Adams