What do you think?
Rate this book
Robert Adams: Questions for an Overcast Day
Questions for an Overcast Day is a series of 33 photographs of young alder trees growing along the Oregon coastline near the artist's home. The series begins by focusing on the branches of the trees, and, progressing from one image to the next, narrows its focus, culminating with several images of a single leaf.
The leaves on the trees appear perforated, the precise cause of which is unknown. The artist likens the particular pattern of erosion on each leaf to hieroglyphics, reading in them a unique "calligraphy of disaster." About them, Adams
What would account for the condition of the leaves--
drought, insects, rocky ground, disease, herbicide, wind?
Are the leaves beautiful?
As with the artist's earlier photographs--of suburban detritus, tract housing under construction and devastated, clear-cut forests--the viewer is invited to find beauty as it coexists with the imperfection, even destruction, of the present day.
The leaves on the trees appear perforated, the precise cause of which is unknown. The artist likens the particular pattern of erosion on each leaf to hieroglyphics, reading in them a unique "calligraphy of disaster." About them, Adams
What would account for the condition of the leaves--
drought, insects, rocky ground, disease, herbicide, wind?
Are the leaves beautiful?
As with the artist's earlier photographs--of suburban detritus, tract housing under construction and devastated, clear-cut forests--the viewer is invited to find beauty as it coexists with the imperfection, even destruction, of the present day.
74 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 2008
About the author
Robert Adams
72 books40 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
See this thread for more information.
Robert Adams is an American photographer best known for his images of the American West. Offering solemn meditations on the landscapes of California, Colorado, and Oregon, Adams’s black-and-white photos document the changes wrought by humans upon nature. “By Interstate 70: a dog skeleton, a vacuum cleaner, TV dinners, a doll, a pie, rolls of carpet. Later, next to the South Platte River: algae, broken concrete, jet contrails, the smell of crude oil,” he wrote. “What I hope to document, though not at the expense of surface detail, is the form that underlies this apparent chaos.”
Born on May 8, 1937 in Orange, NJ, his family moved around the Midwest throughout his childhood, finally settling in Wheat Ridge, CO in 1952. Adams went on to study English at the University of Redlands and received his PhD in English from the University of Southern California in 1965. It wasn’t until the near completion of his dissertation for USC that Adams began to take photography seriously, learning techniques from professional photographer Myron Wood and reading Aperture magazine. In the 1970s, he released the book The New West (1974), and a year later was included in the seminal exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.” Adams has twice been the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and once the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Adams lives and works in Astoria, OR. Today, his works can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
See this thread for more information.
Robert Adams is an American photographer best known for his images of the American West. Offering solemn meditations on the landscapes of California, Colorado, and Oregon, Adams’s black-and-white photos document the changes wrought by humans upon nature. “By Interstate 70: a dog skeleton, a vacuum cleaner, TV dinners, a doll, a pie, rolls of carpet. Later, next to the South Platte River: algae, broken concrete, jet contrails, the smell of crude oil,” he wrote. “What I hope to document, though not at the expense of surface detail, is the form that underlies this apparent chaos.”
Born on May 8, 1937 in Orange, NJ, his family moved around the Midwest throughout his childhood, finally settling in Wheat Ridge, CO in 1952. Adams went on to study English at the University of Redlands and received his PhD in English from the University of Southern California in 1965. It wasn’t until the near completion of his dissertation for USC that Adams began to take photography seriously, learning techniques from professional photographer Myron Wood and reading Aperture magazine. In the 1970s, he released the book The New West (1974), and a year later was included in the seminal exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.” Adams has twice been the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and once the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Adams lives and works in Astoria, OR. Today, his works can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 3, 2012
Keep the title of this book in mind while looking through the 33 black and white images of leaves silhouetted against an evenly gray sky. This is possibly Adams' most abstract body of work, and if considered purely in terms of pattern and composition the images become a bit tedious. But Adams is always asking questions, and here he puts the questions off until the final page. Just what has happened to these leaves. They are the remaining late autumn leaves of alder trees along the Oregon coast near the photographers home. They are unprepossessing little things, but they have been through a lot. They are riddled with damage, either from insects, pollution. or possibly just time. Maybe this is what the last hangers on look like by the time spring and summer have had their way with them.
Adams asks, Are the leaves beautiful?
He is always asking that question about beauty and making it as difficult as possible. He tangles it up with fragility, damage, the physical presence of a photograph, and the inexorable passing of time.
Adams asks, Are the leaves beautiful?
He is always asking that question about beauty and making it as difficult as possible. He tangles it up with fragility, damage, the physical presence of a photograph, and the inexorable passing of time.
Displaying 1 of 1 review