Robert Adams

American

1937, Orange, New Jersey

Adams discusses documenting humanity’s toll on the environment

Show TranscriptHide Transcript

transcripts

NARRATOR:

Robert Adams photographs with a critical, but poetic lens. Focusing on the great American west for over four decades, Adams has witnessed the human sprawl that’s invaded and replaced the wilderness. His photographs capture uprooted trees, littered fields, and distant highways. In these striking black-and-white images, Adams reveals a land that refuses to back down, in spite of modern technology, real estate, and human demand. Artist Robert Adams:

ROBERT ADAMS:

I like to document what’s glorious in the West—and remains glorious, even despite what we’ve done to it. I’d like to be very truthful about that, but I also what to show what is—what is disturbing and what needs correction. Uh, the best way to do that, and it’s the way every artist dreams of, is to show it at the same time, in the very same rectangle. The effort is to find that perfectly balanced frame, uh, where everything fits. Uh, it’s not exactly the same as life, it’s—it’s life seen better.

Credits:

Audio of Robert Adams interview excerpted from Art 21: Ecology, episode title “The New West”

Courtesy Art21, Inc.

Works in the Collection

Please note that artwork locations are subject to change, and not all works are on view at all times.

Only a portion of SFMOMA's collection is currently online, and the information presented here is subject to revision. Please contact us at collections@sfmoma.org to verify collection holdings and artwork information. If you are interested in receiving a high resolution image of an artwork for educational, scholarly, or publication purposes, please contact us at copyright@sfmoma.org.

This resource is for educational use and its contents may not be reproduced without permission. Please review our Terms of Use for more information.

Robert Adams

Audio Stories

transcripts

Works in the Collection