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from being a vagabond photographer
of one to a family of five in about two years
and was desperate to create photographs
without spending too much time away
from home. I started working on the
project because it allowed me to mine old
images from my existing archives. I would
revisit location, landscape and sketchbook
images from negatives and digital files.
I would look at them again with fresh
eyes and ask myself, “What does this image
need?” Out of the corner of my eye, or on
the fringe of consciousness, an image
would begin to take shape. The image
would then drive an idea. I know this is
“bass-ackwards” – the idea should drive
the image – but for this body of work it
was the other way around.’I
n this collection, Adams reimagines
folkloric tropes of beauty and
superheroes, fairies and fictional
characters of the American West,
and re-envisions the protagonists in
contemporary settings, like the photo
The Matchstick Merchant’s Daughter
Plays With Matches, in which a lone
child standing in deep woodland holds
an oversized matchstick behind her back.
‘These images respond to the need to
bring order and significance to an anxious
world. Re-envisioned in contemporary
settings, my protagonists search for
identity, attempt to shape their destinies
and encounter the unexpected. My heroes
and heroines must work their way through
perplexing conditions, disappointment andcompromise to uncover sublime moments
of liberation, or redemption,’ he says.
‘The Pied Piper Decides to Take a Wife,
for example, came from a negative I took in
Havana – a man looking out of a window.
The original shot has beautiful light and
colour, but there was also something
foreboding about it. It felt lonely, with a
bit of longing. The room he is standing in
had a great narrative – a sort of old-world
luxury gone tired. It reminded me of what
it was like to be alone and longing for
companionship. The Pied Piper is of course
a creepy, sinister character, so I thought:
“What if the Pied Piper used his magic pipe
to not just lure children to follow him but
also a spouse?” He’s just the kind of guy who
would be lonely, so of course he would.Above Jules Verne Skips School Opposite His Moral Compass Had No North