ADAMS, Robert - The Place we Live. 1964-2009

Statement by the photographer, Robert ADAMS

"Are there affirmable days or places in our deteriorating world? Are there scenes in life, right now, for which we might conceivably be thankful? Is there a basis for joy or serenity, even if felt only occasionally? Are there grounds now and then for an unironic smile?” (© Robert ADAMS)

Background information

"This three-hardcover-Volume-set 'The Place We Live' traces ADAMS’ deep engagement with the geography of the American West, weaving together various aspects of over four decades of work into a cohesive, epic narrative of the American experience. Taken as a whole, this publication elucidates the photographer’s civic goals: to consider the privilege of the place we were given and the obligations of citizenship. Printed with an unprecedented fidelity to the photographer’s original prints, Volumes I & II reflect ADAMS’ exacting, compelling sequence of nearly four hundred plates and bring together texts written by the photographer to accompany his photographic projects. Volume III offers a detailed chronology of Adams’ life, an illustrated bibliography of his monographs, selections from his personal archive, and a series of critical essays on his work by Joshua Chuang, Tod PAPAGEORGE, Jock Reynolds and John Szarkowski." (© Steidl Verlag, 2013)

In the press: "This serious retrospective offers not only an intimate and coherent narrative of the development of the Western United States in the late 20th and early 21st century, but also a challenging view of the complexity and contradictions of our contemporary, global society." (© Jim CASPER, in: LensCulture.com)

Content

• Vol. I: Introduction - The Plains - Sweden - Late Hispanic Settlement - Ludlow - Eden - The New West - What We Bought - From the Missouri West - Cottonwoods - Our Parents, Our Children - Summer Nights - The Pawnee Nationl Grassland - About the Pictures
  Vol. II: Los Angeles Spring - Lookout Mountain Again - Along Some Rivers - The Pacific - Turning Back - The War in Iraq - Poplars - Bodhisattva - Pine Valley - Questions for an Overcast Day - Sea Storeíes, This Day - About the Pictures
  Vol. III: 'The Making of a Photographer' by Joshua CHUANG - 'The New West: A Foreword' by John Szarkowski - 'What We Bought' by Tod PAPAGEORGE - 'Taken Together' by Jock Reynolds - 'Books by Robert Adams' by Joshua Chuang - Chronology - Postscript

About the American photographer, Robert ADAMS (b. 1937)

Photo books by Robert ADAMS