The Sea Beach 2015

Editor: Right, next up we have Robert Adams's 2015 photograph, "The Sea Beach". It’s, well, bleak. That high horizon line almost smothers the earth. What are your first impressions? Curator: Bleak is one word for it. For me, it whispers of melancholy. That monochrome palette strips everything bare, leaving us with just form and texture. The fog almost feels like a physical barrier. Is it beauty or despair we're looking at? It's a question that haunts me. What does it make you feel? Editor: Honestly? A little claustrophobic. It’s all so…flat. Like the world is ending, not with a bang, but with beige. Does Adams do that on purpose, do you think? To make you uncomfortable? Curator: Perhaps. Or perhaps it's simply Adams being honest about the landscapes we inhabit. He shows us beauty intertwined with decay, and our own mark upon it. The high horizon flattens perspective. Are we dominating the landscape, or becoming insignificant in the face of nature's overwhelming greyness? I always wonder whether these are just places in the world, or spaces of the artist's inner mind. Editor: It definitely makes me think about how much humans affect the world. Thanks, I’m going to spend a little more time with this one. Curator: And maybe, just maybe, a little beauty in the beige if you let your eyes linger and imagination soar?