Below Mount Garfield, Mesa County, Colorado 1979

Robert Adams made this photograph, 'Below Mount Garfield, Mesa County, Colorado', using gelatin silver. I'm seeing a broad landscape under a washed-out sky. A space that feels both expansive and empty. It looks like a kind of overlooked or forgotten place. Adams, he’s out there on the fringes, looking at what others ignore. I imagine him composing the shot, thinking about line and form, how the subtle gradations of gray can evoke such a strong sense of place. The tire tracks and the bare ground are like gestural marks. It's like a monochrome canvas, but with land. I am thinking of Ed Ruscha, another artist with a similar commitment to recording the overlooked details of the American West. They are like poets of the everyday, transforming the mundane into something profound. They remind us to slow down, to pay attention to the beauty in the ordinary, and to find meaning in the margins.