Pikes Peak, over the top of a fence, and new houses, Colorado Springs, Colorado 1968 - 1971

This black and white photograph captures Pikes Peak over a fence and new houses in Colorado Springs. I can only imagine what Robert Adams was thinking when he took it. I think it's about this kind of American West condition, right? Like a palimpsest—where the natural and the man-made collide, layer upon layer. There is this huge mountain in the background that looks like a cloud and in front is a classic suburban fence. It’s like the fence is there to keep something out. The mountain? Other people? What does it mean to frame a view like this? Adams seems to be thinking about the cost of progress, the push and pull between our longing for nature and our urge to build. It reminds me of the New Topographics photographers, all looking at how we shape the land. It's like they’re all in conversation, picking up each other's threads. It's not pretty but it makes you think.