Robert Adams

[bags27]

IMNSHO I disagree about using "xxxs's" when "xxxs'" is perfectly correct and one keystroke less.

You're entitled to your opinion. But my last name ends in an "s," so I think people should spend that extra letter on my very, very important last name!

 

[Sirius Glass]

You're entitled to your opinion. But my last name ends in an "s," so I think people should spend that extra letter on my very, very important last name!

People often disagree with me when they are wrong, as I have found out, but still they are entitled to be wrong. Without those people to whom could one point a criticizing option.

 

[bags27]

Back to art...This is what The New Yorker says of her photography:

O’Keeffe rarely made just one photograph of a scene. She recorded how shapes, shadows, and composition would alter when the sun moved, or the seasons changed, or her camera tilted just a bit. In these formal adventures, her main obsession was the salita door in her house’s inner courtyard. (She often noted that the salita door was what impelled her to buy the property.) She made twenty-three paintings and drawings of that door. As she wrote, “It’s a curse—the way I feel I must continually go on with that door.”

And this is from (genuflect, genuflect) Breaking Bad about her painting:


In every single scene of every single episode, Breaking Bad was flawless, perfect, indescribably brilliant.

 

[warden]

You're entitled to your opinion. But my last name ends in an "s," so I think people should spend that extra letter on my very, very important last name!

Bags's opinions are A-okay with me. See what I did just there?

 

[Pieter12]

But would you pronounce it "Adamses"? I don't think so. As in Robert Adamses photos or Robert Adams photos.

 

[bags27]

Bags's opinions are A-okay with me. See what I did just there?

I see! I was teased throughout high school....

 

[bags27]

But would you pronounce it "Adamses"? I don't think so. As in Robert Adamses photos or Robert Adams photos.

Yes, as someone with a similar last name, it is pronounced Adamses.

BTW, one thing we can all agree on and yet I surprisingly see in the highly selective college I teach at, it cannot be Adam's. The internal apostrophe is always wrong and yet sometimes practiced.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yes, as someone with a similar last name, it is pronounced Adamses.

BTW, one thing we can all agree on and yet I surprisingly see in the highly selective college I teach at, it cannot be Adam's. The internal apostrophe is always wrong and yet sometimes practiced.

Call the Grammar Police! A college professor left a hanging preposition mid-sentence! Soon he will be splitting infinitely boldly down the middle!

 

[mrosenlof]

There is currently at the Denver Art Museum an exhibit of photographs *owned* by Robert Adams, so his personal collection, and donated to the museum in 2018. I enjoyed this exhibit quite a bit, learned a little about a couple of photographers new to me. Saw at least one Edward Weston photo that I hadn't seen before. Overall a real treat.

I found the "Georgia O'Keefe, Potographer" exhibit which is the museum's current headline exhibit to be a bit ho-hum. I was skeptical going in. O'Keefe did not, to my knowledge, publish or exhibit photos, and the photos were mostly tiny drugstore prints. This exhibit might have given me a little more insight into her thought process, but I don't feel like it expanded my knowledge or appreciation of photography like Robert Adams collection did.

 

[bags27]

Call the Grammar Police! A college professor left a hanging preposition mid-sentence! Soon he will be splitting infinitely boldly down the middle!

As I said, grammar and syntax (and diction) should be generative, kinda like photography....

 

[MTGseattle]

I was really trying to resist chiming in regarding @bags27 opinion regarding grammar, syntax and diction. I fully understand that language is somewhat fluid and will change with the times. I can still rail against some of those changes can I not? The trend of nouns used as verbs is one that should die off. The word "epic" has lost all meaning. One can fire off the most cryptic disjointed text message and that will likely be fine, but if you are typing an email or other correspondence, some rules should be adhered to. There is a reason the Strunk and White Elements of Style is still in print after all.
Where were we?
Robert Adams. I enjoy his writing and have enjoyed much of his photography. Thank you to those that have cited monographs I was unaware of.
I bet there are some folks viewing the forums that are just starting out and possibly watching some people on YouTube, etc. Try not to get hung up on what people often call "cliche" images. If you like trees, old cars, trains, decrepit structures and sand dunes, go and photograph them.

 

[Sirius Glass]

As I said, grammar and syntax (and diction) should be generative, kinda like photography....

When arthritis hits your hands, you will rue the day that you decided to add useless and wasted key strokes like extra and superfluous 's' and 'u'.

 

[Arthurwg]

The point is that RA's pictures are "relevant", something lacking in the majority of photographs today.

 

[bags27]

I was really trying to resist chiming in regarding @bags27 opinion regarding grammar, syntax and diction. I fully understand that language is somewhat fluid and will change with the times. I can still rail against some of those changes can I not? The trend of nouns used as verbs is one that should die off. The word "epic" has lost all meaning. One can fire off the most cryptic disjointed text message and that will likely be fine, but if you are typing an email or other correspondence, some rules should be adhered to. There is a reason the Strunk and White Elements of Style is still in print after all.
Where were we?
Robert Adams. I enjoy his writing and have enjoyed much of his photography. Thank you to those that have cited monographs I was unaware of.
I bet there are some folks viewing the forums that are just starting out and possibly watching some people on YouTube, etc. Try not to get hung up on what people often call "cliche" images. If you like trees, old cars, trains, decrepit structures and sand dunes, go and photograph them.

I've probably provoked so many "off topic" responses that I apologize for misdirecting this thread. Especially unfortunate because Adams is a consummate stylist. Or should I say that Adams's style is consummate?

But to respond to your excellent point about Strunk and White: sure, it's still in print. But since it was first published there have been many other works on style. Grammar is just a convention, and our grammar is an agreement among us elites about what constitutes "acceptable" writing.

No one today would accuse Ralph Waldo Emerson of being a renegade stylist. But when he delivered "The American Scholar Address" in 1837 at Harvard, many in the audience likely gasped at--certainly subsequently harshly criticized in print--his word usage and style. Just like when Bob went electric in 1965....Change is good (except for digital photography )

 

[Arthurwg]

Adams often prints small, say 6x6", so some of the prints in the show are smaller on the gallery wall than they are in the books that contain them. It's a wholly different experience. The show is in seven galleries so there is ample space to take in the work. There is plenty of text on the walls giving context to the work, so I'd allow two hours to get through it.

I did ask him why he usually printed small and he told me that he had asthma and needed to reduce his exposure to chemicals. But I don't think that's the whole thing. . I think it's also an expression of modesty, or a way of saying no more than necessary to make a point. Those small prints seem very intimate.

 

[Pieter12]

I did ask him why he usually printed small and he told me that he had asthma and needed to reduce his exposure to chemicals. But I don't think that's the whole thing. . I think it's also an expression of modesty, or a way of saying no more than necessary to make a point. Those small prints seem very intimate.

Although there are some small prints in the NGA show, the great majority seem to be 8x10 and larger, a few 16x20's.

 

[MTGseattle]

Michael Kenna is another photographer who usually prints "small." I've heard him reference intimacy and that it generally causes the viewer to step in closer and engage with the print from much nearer than if it were a 20x24. I'd be willing to bet Adams thought much the same.

 

[logan2z]

I did ask him why he usually printed small and he told me that he had asthma and needed to reduce his exposure to chemicals. But I don't think that's the whole thing. . I think it's also an expression of modesty, or a way of saying no more than necessary to make a point. Those small prints seem very intimate.

Although I can't seem to dig up the source of this, I thought I read that materials cost was at least part of the reason he made small prints, especially early in his career. Some of Lee Friedlander's early prints are very small as well, his later prints are much larger.

 

[Arthurwg]

Funny, I'm going the opposite way. Small prints these days.

 

[logan2z]

Funny, I'm going the opposite way. Small prints these days.

I've always been an 8x10 guy, occasionally I'll go as big as 11x14. I recently bought a box of 5x7 paper, I like small prints.

 

[Arthurwg]

Just receive my copy of "American Science." Aside from the basic fact that these are spectacular photos, I've concluded that Robert Adams must be in a state of Grace. There is something about him that is so pure in spirit and soulful that he must be a kind of Saint.

 

[logan2z]

Just receive my copy of "American Science." Aside from the basic fact that these are spectacular photos, I've concluded that Robert Adams must be in a state of Grace. There is something about him that is so pure in spirit and soulful that he must be a kind of Saint.

I assume you mean 'Silence'

It's a very nice book. It replicates content from the stack of Robert Adams books that I already own, but the paper is really nice and I'm a sucker for anything by RA, so it's in 'the collection'.

 

[Arthurwg]

Yes, "Silence."

 

[Pieter12]

I assume you mean 'Silence'

It's a very nice book. It replicates content from the stack of Robert Adams books that I already own, but the paper is really nice and I'm a sucker for anything by RA, so it's in 'the collection'.

So many nice books. I need to find a copy of the New Topographics catalog for a reasonable price.


From The New Yorker. The Six Stages of Having Too Many Books By Vi-An Nguyen
October 5, 2022

 

[logan2z]

So many nice books. I need to find a copy of the New Topographics catalog for a reasonable price.

View attachment 318265
From The New Yorker. The Six Stages of Having Too Many Books By Vi-An Nguyen
October 5, 2022

Steidl is re-printing it - one of these years.

And I have that double shelf!