Weld County, Colorado Possibly 1976 - 1983

Robert Adams made this photograph, Weld County, Colorado with gelatin silver. The silvery grays feel so deliberate, like he’s painting with light and shadow to find a certain kind of sublime—one that’s quiet and a little unsettling. Adams isn't afraid to embrace the starkness of the scene. The two floodlight poles cut right through the composition, making these bright verticals against the muted landscape. I am drawn to the way the light pools at the base of the poles, creating a flat, almost geometric shape that contrasts with the more organic forms of the field. It's like a stage, the way the light renders everything so plain, like the paintings of Edward Hopper. Both are holding a mirror up to the ordinary. It's the strange beauty of art, to notice the mundane and ask us to see it too.