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.'
Robert Adams
Robert Adams, born in Orange, New Jersey in 1937, is best known for his series of photographs that investigates urban encroachment into the landscape of the American West. In much of his work, Adams balances a sense of hope for Nature's persistence against despair with man's destruction of what was, until relatively recently, wilderness.
He took the Summer Nights series along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, where he lives. The series leads the viewer outward from urban centres towards the rural plains and mountains, suggesting a walk out of town as the light fades.
As the series title suggests, Adams took many of the photographs at night in summer, when twilight can extend into the whole night. Others, where electric lights are balanced - and even dwarfed - by the drama of darkening skies, were taken at actual twilight.
This text was originally written to accompany the exhibition Twilight: Photography in the Magic Hour on display at the V&A South Kensington between 10 October and 17 December 2006..
Robert Adams, 'Longmont
Robert Adams
'Longmont, Colorado' from the series 'Summer Nights'
About 1982 (printed 1989)
Vintage silver print
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Platteville
Robert Adams
'Platteville, Colorado'
1980 (printed 1990)
Vintage silver print
Width 10.75 inches x height 11 inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, Untitled
Robert Adams
Untitled, from the series `Summer Nights'
About 1981 (printed 1982)
Vintage silver print
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Colorado'
Robert Adams
'Colorado', from the series 'Summer Nights'
About 1981 ( printed 1982)
Vintage silver print
Width 5 inches x height 5 inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Colorado'
Robert Adams
'Colorado', from the series 'Summer Nights'
About 1980 (printed 1990)
Gelatin-silver print
Width 11 inches x height 11 inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Aurora
Robert Adams
'Aurora, Colorado' from the series 'Summer Nights'
1979
Gelatin-silver print
Width 11 inches x height 11 inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, Untitled
Robert Adams
Untitled, from the series 'Summer Nights'
About 1981 (printed 1990)
Vintage silver print
Width 11 inches x height 11 inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Edge of Longmont
Robert Adams
'Edge of Longmont, Colorado', from the series 'Summer Nights'
1979 (printed 1985)
Vintage silver print
Width 15 inches x height 15 inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Longmont
Robert Adams
'Longmont, Colorado',
1979 (printed 1990)
Gelatin-silver print
Width 11 inches x height width inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'The South Platte River
Robert Adams
'The South Platte River, Looking Toward Denver'
1979 (printed 1988)
Vintage silver print
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Colorado Springs
Robert Adams
'Colorado Springs, Colorado'
1979 (printed 1985)
Vintage silver print
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert AdamsRobert Adams, 'Longmont
Robert Adams
'Longmont, Colorado', from the series 'Summer Nights'
1980 (printed 1988)
Vintage silver print
Width 14.5 inches x height 14.75 inches
Courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
© Robert Adams
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