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Robert Adams Quotes

Photographer

Robert Adams, born on May 8, 1937, is an American photographer known for his profound depiction of the urban and rural landscapes of the American Midwest. His work focuses on the impact of human activity on the natural environment.

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All Photographer Photography Art Ifs Mind Trying Thinking Knows Way Self Artist Nonduality Photograph Robert Adams World Reality Silence Art Is Doe Oneness

Famous Robert Adams Quotes

“I have asked students at the beginning of their careers, what things of that sort might haunt them – what things they must photograph, things they have to try to shoot even before they master the intricacies of making dye transfer prints.”

Trying Might Careers Students Masters Photographer Photograph Print Transfers Intricacy

Book:Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values

Source: Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional values

“The word beauty is unavoidable … it accounts for my decision to photograph … There appeared a quality, beauty seemed the only appropriate word for it, in certain photographs, and I am compelled to live with the vocabulary of this new sight … through over many years [I] still find it embarrassing to use the word beauty, I fear I will be attacked for it, but I still believe in it.”

Years Believe Stills Use Certain Decision Quality Accounts Sight Photographer Photograph Appropriate Vocabulary Embarrassing Compelled I Still Believe

Author:Robert Adams

“Still photographs often differ from life more by their silence than by the immobility of their subjects. Landscape pictures tend to converge with life, however, on summer nights, when the sounds outside, after we call in children and close garage doors, are small - the whir of moths, the snap of a stick.”

Children Stills Night Sound Silence Doors Subjects Summer Sticks Photograph Landscape Snaps Garage Moths Summer Nights

Author:Robert Adams

“No place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film.”

Source: Along some rivers: photographs and conversations

“When photographers get beyond copying the achievements of others, or just repeating their own accidental first successes, they learn that they do not know where in the world they will find pictures. Nobody does. Each photograph that works is a revelation to its supposed creator.”

Knows World Firsts Doe Achievement Photography Photographer Photograph Creator Revelations Copying

Book:Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

Source: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

“Among the most compelling truths in some of the early photographs is their implication of silence.”

Silence Photography Photograph Compelling Implications

Book:Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

Source: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

“Larry Schwarm's photographs of fire on the prairie are so compelling that I cannot imagine any later photographer trying to do better. His pictures convince us that seemingly far away events are close by, relevant to any serious person's life.”

Trying Persons Fire Imagine Events Serious Photographer Photograph Convince Relevant Far Away Compelling Larry Prairie Convince Us Serious Person

Author:Robert Adams

“Your own photography is never enough. Every photographer who has lasted has depended on other peoples pictures too - photographs that may be public or private, serious or funny, but that carry with them a reminder of community.”

May Enough Community Serious Photography Photographer Photograph Reminders

Book:Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

Source: Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews

About the Author

Born: May 8, 1937
Known for: Photographer
Quotes: 113

Books & Sources

Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and ReviewsRelated source material

Beauty in photography: essays in defense of traditional valuesRelated source material

Silence of the Heart: Dialogues with Robert AdamsRelated source material

Along some rivers: photographs and conversationsRelated source material

Aspects of American photography, 1976: April 1-April 30, 1976, Gallery 210Related source material

EW:100: centennial essays in honor of Edward WestonRelated source material

Paul Strand: essays on his life and workRelated source material

The new West: landscapes along the Colorado Front RangeRelated source material

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