Umatilla County, Oregon Possibly 1978 - 1983

This is a photograph, Umatilla County, Oregon, by Robert Adams. He uses the camera almost like a kind of neutral tool, registering a scene with an openness to whatever’s there. The dirt road cuts right through the center. It’s not romantic, but it’s really about a way of seeing. It’s a gray day, the sky is just this blank nothing, and the fields are sort of plowed, but it's all so subdued, like a palette of browns and grays, that are somehow full of potential. Look at the way the road disappears over the hill, you can almost feel the dust. It reminds me a bit of some of the New Topographics photographers, like Lewis Baltz. They were just looking at the world as it is, without trying to make it pretty, but somehow finding a different kind of beauty in the everyday. Ultimately, it's about slowing down and really looking.