The Sea Beach 2015

Robert Adams made this photograph, The Sea Beach, with film, and the final result is a gelatin silver print. What hits me first is the light, that almost metallic sheen on the water, it’s so overexposed that it almost flattens the scene, like a memory struggling to surface. The figures are turned away from us, caught in their own moments of contemplation or conversation, and we're left to wonder what they're seeing, what they're feeling. There's a beautiful tension between the stillness of the people and the vastness of the landscape. Adams often explores the relationship between humans and the environment, and here, you feel both the intimacy of personal experience and the indifference of nature. I can almost feel the grit of the sand and the cool, salty breeze. Thinking about the great American photographers, like Walker Evans, or even the stark landscapes of someone like Agnes Martin, who found something so compelling in minimalism, like Adams, the quiet, contemplative feeling that is expressed through simplicity. What we are left with is an image that lingers in the mind, full of questions and quiet beauty.