Longmont, Colorado 1982 - 1992

Robert Adams made this photograph, "Longmont, Colorado", in silver gelatin. It's like he's dropped to his knees, right? To show us this micro world of grass and a fallen leaf. Look how he’s tuned into the way light glances off the dew drops clinging to each blade. Those tiny spheres, each one a whole little universe reflecting back the light. The texture of the paper gives the image a soft glow, like an old memory. It's that single, slightly out-of-focus leaf in the foreground that gets me. Its veins, so delicately rendered, remind us of the intricate structures of life, and how easily they can be disrupted. Adams’ work reminds me a little of Frederick Sommer, another photographer who found the epic in the everyday. Both showing how seeing is not just about recording but finding something beautiful in what we might otherwise pass by. There's something so generous about that, don't you think?