photographic medium to begin defining a new area
of social critique.
Adams’s inspirations are many. In his writings or
in the accompanying text to his work, he regularly
quotes poets and writers, including Henry David
Thoreau, Edward Abbey, and others. He also cites
and discusses painting, sculpture, and architecture
as influential to his work. In particular, the Ger-
man architect Rudolph Schwarz, known for his
church designs, has influenced Adams. Beyond
the documentary and social context, Adams’s pho-
tographs have also been critiqued on a formal or
aesthetic level. Most notably, his work has been
compared to the paintings of American painter
Edward Hopper, through his similar use of stark
light, lone figures, and a building or element within
the broader landscape.
Adams published his first book,White Churches
of the Plains, in 1970 and proceeded to successfully
publish over 20 books over the following 30 years.
Included areThe New West: Landscapes Along the
Colorado Front Range(1974), an important early
work;From the Missouri West (1980), Adams’s
personal survey of western expansion; Summer
Nights (1985), which captured the contrasting
beauty and solitude of the inhabited suburban
landscape;To Make it Home: Photographs of the
American West(1989); published to coincide with
his major retrospective exhibit at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art; and West from the Columbia
(1995), which captures the landscape of the Oregon
Coast where Adams and his wife vacationed for
years and now live.
Adams’s oeuvre extends beyond obvious irony
and does not suggest an easy answer to the existen-
tial questions it poses. The viewer must come to
grips with his or her own position in relation to the
future and in relation to landscape and civilization.
In sorting out these conflicts, the photographer
has written,
Most of my hopes are for the amelioration of problems—
a more conservative pattern of land use, a reduction in
air pollution, a more prudent consumption of water, a
lessening of animal abuse, a more respectful architec-
ture. When I think about the possibility, however, of a
landscape enriched by specific places to which we have
responded imaginatively and with deference, I find
myself thinking that we might be permitted to call it
improved.
(Adams 1989, 163)
JIMMCDONALDSeealso: Adams, Ansel; Baltz, Lewis; Gohlke,
Frank; History of Photography: 1980s; Szarkowski,
John
Biography
Born in Orange, New Jersey, 8 May 1937. Attended Uni-
versity of Colorado, 1955; studied English, University of
Redlands, California, B.A., 1959; studied English, Uni-
versity of Southern California, Ph.D., 1965. Self-edu-
cated in photography. Assistant Professor at Colorado
College, Colorado Springs, 1962–1970; editorial assis-
tant at The Colorado Associated University Press,
Boulder, 1972. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation Fellowship, 1973; National Endowment
for the Arts Photographer’s Fellowship, 1973; Award
of Merit, American Association of State and Local His-
tory, 1975; National Endowment for the Arts Photogra-
pher’s Fellowship, 1978; Colorado Governor’s Award in
the Arts, 1979; John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation Fellowship, 1980; Peer Award from The
Friends of Photography, 1983; Charles Pratt Memorial
Award, 1987; John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation Fellow, 1994; Spectrum International Prize
for Photography, 1995. Living in Astoria, Oregon.Selected Individual Exhibitions
1971 Robert Adams; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center,
Colorado Springs, Colorado
1976 Robert Adams; St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New
Mexico
1978 Prairie; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado
1979 Prairie; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New
York, and traveling
1980 From the Missouri West; Castelli Graphics, New York,
New York
1981 The New West: Photographs by Robert Adams; Phila-
delphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1984 Our Lives & Our Children: Photographs Taken Near
the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant; Moravian Col-
lege, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
1986 Summer Nights; Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colo-
rado, and traveling
1989 To Make it Home: Photographs of the American West
1965–1986, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
1991 Robert Adams; Photo Gallery International, Tokyo,
Japan
1992 Robert Adams; Centre d’Art Contemporain, Brussels,
Belgium
1993 At the End of the Colombia River; Denver Art Mu-
seum, Denver, Colorado
1994 Listening to the River; Sprengel Museum, Hanover,
Germany, and traveling
1995 West from the Columbia; Fraenkel Gallery, San Fran-
cisco, California
1996 Our Lives and Our Children; Musee d’Arte Moderne de
St. Etienne, St. Etienne, France
1998 To the Mouth of the Columbia; Princeton University,
Princeton, New Jersey
2000 California; Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, Califor-
nia
2001 Robert Adams: Places—People; National Museum of
Contemporary Art, Oslo, Norway
Reinventing the West: The Photographs of Ansel Adams and
Robert Adams; Addison Gallery of American Art, And-
over, Massachusetts
Sunlight, Solitude, Democracy, Home...Photographs byADAMS, ROBERT