Robert Adams

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Graeme Williams - Photographic Conversations

2 ай бұрын

THIS VIDEO: Beauty is perhaps not the first word that comes to mind when one thinks of Robert Adams urban expansion photographs. His work came to prominence in the mid-1970s through his book The New West and his inclusion in the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape. Before Ecologists become trendy, Adams was driven to reveal how the presence of humans was affecting the landscape of the American West. When you look at these early pictures, one’s first reaction is to recoil from mindless urban developments and then one becomes protective of nature. But even these images have an engaging aesthetic resulting from the photographer's awareness of composition and light. Adams says that The subject of these pictures, is not the tract homes or freeways - but Light itself - which he sees as the source of all form. In the same way that a war photographer composes captivating images of destruction using form and light, Adams seeks out beauty within these disrupted spaces.
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ABOUT ME: The conversations focus on topics related to different aspects of photography including: art, documentary and photojournalism. The discussions explore the personal experiences of photographers and artists and how their work reflects both their internal and external landscape. During the past 30 years I have photographed in over 50 countries for magazines including National Geographic, Time, New York Times and Newsweek. I have held solo exhibitions in New York, London and Paris and my work is showcased in private and institutional art collections around the world.
COPYRIGHT: The copyright for all images belongs to the photographer/s being discussed.
WEBSITE: www.graemewilliams.co.za
FACEBOOK: / graemewilliamsphotogra...
INSTAGRAM: williamsgraeme
MUSIC: KZfaq audio Lost in Prayer - Doug Maxwell, Drifting at 432Hz - Unicorn Heads,
VIDEO CLIPS:Botanist Matt Ritter on Photographer Robert Adams, Robert Adams Books & Gravures Art21 Extended Play, Robert Adams introduces American Silence The Photographs of Robert Adams, Robert Adams Light Art21 Extended Play, Robert Adams Photographing a landscape of mistakes, Robert Adams Turning Back.

Пікірлер: 40

@MeumGaudiumRivegauche 2 ай бұрын

Thank you for all the incredible efforts you put into this.

@johndimino5606 2 ай бұрын

Light, Light, Light . . . that is something I hammered into my students over the years. Light As Subject cannot be overemphasized. The quiet beauty of Adams's photographs is a reminder to us all to slow down, breathe, look carefully and live in the quiet in-between moments. Thank you for sharing this with us.

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi John It's strange that light isn't the first port of call - but luckily for your students, it is.

@johndimino5606 2 ай бұрын

Light - the beauty, the power, the elegance and the absolute necessity of the active presence of Light in the photograph.

@joycourtney Ай бұрын

Another excellent video. Thank you for producing these

@wotldpeace 2 ай бұрын

It may be apocryphal, but some great composer supposedly said about Beethoven, "you have no idea how his footsteps echo in our heads." In American landscape photography, Robert Adams' work carries a similar force. You are helping so many with these short gorgeous intelligent videos. Thank you.

@richardrizzo_photography 2 ай бұрын

Excellent video, I'm a big fan of Adams work and his approach. Thank you Graeme.

@jameshoward9700 2 ай бұрын

Tough questions being asked here - by Adams and you! A post-beauty world is a modern prospect and a conceivable reality. Hard to undo. Wow, Adams is such a subtle communicator - thanks for the 'starter for ten.'

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi James Yes, he comes across in such an understated way - definitely not made for the TikTok generation.

@sonofoneintheuniverse 2 ай бұрын

The landscape in all forms is there in plain sight just in front of us. Most do not see it. When we see it we experience everyday wonders everywhere... 😊

@nnelgsiggah 2 ай бұрын

That was glorious!

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Thanks. It was meant as a poem of gratitude to a photographer that I greatly appreciate.

@glennhaggis-6992 2 ай бұрын

@@PhotoConversations I certainly felt that way too! Thanks again.

@ralf.mueller 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for this Graeme, I know many don't know and understand the work of Robert Adams (at least here in Europe), great you covered him here, a great photographer of our time

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi Ralf I would have thought that his work was well-known everywhere. Even so, traces of his aesthetic show through in a lot of European photography. So even if they don't know it, he is very present.

@ralf.mueller 2 ай бұрын

@@PhotoConversations I'd say in the photography scene yes. Steidl, the most prestigious photobook publisher in Germany published many (all?) of his photo books and I've heard 'The New West' is considered for reprinting. But in the public his name is unknown I'd say, unlike Ansel Adams or Robert Frank for example

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

@@ralf.mueller Yes, I think that you are right.

@channamasala 2 ай бұрын

I’m very much enjoyed that. Thank you 🙏

@GrenvilleMelonseedSkiff496 2 ай бұрын

Thanks for this excellent video … a fine insight into a thoughtful and inspirational photographer. As it happens, I came across my favourite tree while riding my bicycle. I’ve photographed it on several occasions in different seasons and conditions and look forward to going back to it on future bicycle rides. 📷🚴‍♂️🙂 PS: I always have my Fuji X100V with me now on bicycle rides using the PS Bagworks rider strap and a JJC neoprene camera case. I prefer black and white JPEG (Acros) landscapes and endeavour to capture as near to final an image as possible in the moment.

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi Grenville That's a great project. best of luck.

@BWOOHAHAHAAA 2 ай бұрын

I always thought that the New Topographics, was all about criticism of the influence of man on the environment. It's nice to see that Adams did appreciate and see the beauty in these landscapes. I grew up with this idea that nature has to be pure, with no human influence. For a long time this kept me from fully appreciating the beauty of the highly populated country I live in (the Netherlands). Many of my fellow countrymen believe that you have to go abroad to see real nature.....it's really sad they are blind to what can be found here.

@richardsimms251 2 ай бұрын

What a great video. RS. Canada

@geremianencionipardini 2 ай бұрын

sono un giovane fotografo italiano e grazie ai tuoi video sto imparando tanto, grazie!

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi Geremia Sono felice che trovi utili i video. Grazie per il feedback.

@SlavaVeres 2 ай бұрын

Graeme, THANK YOU for covering one of the most influential photographer of the XXth century. Robert Adams is such a contrast to another famous Adams. I much prefer Robert’s landscapes rather than Ansel’s.

@desmondpainter7313 Ай бұрын

Great video about a fantastic photographer, thank you. By the way, I just got your books A city refracted and The inner city from the library. Excellent!

@PhotoConversations Ай бұрын

That's a shocker - which library? I wouldn't have thought that they made it to the library.

@desmondpainter7313 Ай бұрын

@@PhotoConversations It's the Stellenbosch University library, so that makes it a bit less surprising I guess. I love both, but especially enjoyed going through 'Refracted' this morning. Lovely essay by Leon de Kock too.

@cindynichols27 29 күн бұрын

I very much enjoy all these videos. Very well produced, super lucid, and informative. I do have reservations at times about the narration, in particular certain cliched notions of the artistic process. For instance, the statement that an artist has to first “decide what they want to express” assumes that the material or subject or feeling to be expressed is already there inside the artist and only needs a channel (techniques, forms, methods) to “get out.” This is in contrast to the idea that feelings etc. are in fact discovered or even created in the act of expression itself, a process much more alive than mere transmission of something already known.

@PhotoConversations 27 күн бұрын

Hi Cindy I agree with your comments - the creative process is always a balance between, conceptualising, doing and allowing space for the non-linear. Sometimes one needs a basic plan to get one out of the house - there is no reason to stick to the plan.

@jimphilpott902 2 ай бұрын

I always can depend on you to provide a sensitive and multilayered perspective on a photographer. In my area of Texas we have "heritage trees" which are protected rather than destroyed. It is a small step but a hopeful one.

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi Jim Maybe we are learning as a species, but we are terribly slow.

@steveh1273 2 ай бұрын

My pursuit has always been nature, landscape, inspiring architecture, subjects I hold close. After so many road trips in search for this harmony and beauty, I have found it has succumbed to corporate asphalt and concrete, countless strip malls, dried up ground cover, payday loans, gas stations, ugliness that defines the modern human environment. Where once trees, flowers, clean water, birds and animals existed. Yet people endure in it, I endure and suffer in it. It pervades our landscape and is ever expanding, I cannot determine why. I have started to photograph this demoralizing landscape and its human conditions, it's the only way I can come to terms with it. Many do not like seeing the photographs. So I find this video and Robert Adams, whom I've heard of, but not experienced his work. Thank you for this video, it is a coincidence I'm glad to find, and see that another artist has seen and dealt with also. Yes, I know many will disagree with my experience,.

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi Steve I'm sure Robert Adams and the work of the other New Topographic photographers will help to make your pursuit less lonely.

@DREES56_TRR-qw2vr 2 ай бұрын

having ostensibly put my camera away for the better part of 40 years, while I concentrated on a career building businesses, it is a great pleasure to be inspired by your conversations on great photographers, thank you Graeme. May I ask, have you made a video focused on the work and life of Fan Ho? I cannot see him featured in your back list?

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Hi thanks. Ni I haven't done one yet on Fan Ho, but he is high on my list.

@oneeyedphotographer 2 ай бұрын

I don't understand beauty. That said, his photography that you showed is quite similar to some of mine. We don't have mountains, but I have photos of dead trees become logs, stumps, rural urban through to city urban. I shoot the light.

@PhotoConversations 2 ай бұрын

Yes, it is a word that has lost its meaning. I like his description - Using light and creating form of a scene.

@oneeyedphotographer 2 ай бұрын

@@PhotoConversations I'm autistic. That has particular implications for my place in the world.

@bencompson Ай бұрын

I have to admit that I am not moved by Robert Adams's work. It does not speak to me the way Ansel Adams's work does on one end of the spectrum and Eggleston's does on the other. I also struggle with his philosophy on urban and suburban expansion. I don't like it either. I think it is ugly and often cold and artless. But that is my opinion, not a moral imperative. If humans are important, and in my opinion humans are the most important, they have to have somewhere to live, thrive and grow. Sure, some expansion and industry is exploitive. But to label tract housing as "inhuman" seems to utterly fail to grasp how many people around the world live, in both the third world and the industrialized world. A stand alone single family home would seem wonderful to a family living in corrugated tin shacks in Sao Paulo or a Stalin era apartment block in Moscow. To call it inhumane without offering a viable alternative seems a bit naive. To label all expansion as "destruction" is also not really fair. Some is. But not all. The world changes and it is changed by its creatures. It is not logically sound to pick a specific time in the history of the planet and pronounce it good and that altering it from that isolated time in history is bad. Who gets to choose when everything was just right? This is a particularly prickly question on the eastern seaboard of the US where the native Americans burned vast tracts of land for their various purposes, altering it forever.This occurred centuries before Europeans arrived. We have an idea that 500 years ago the east was somehow in a stable pristine state and it was ruined by European settlers. This has never been true.