ROBERT ADAMS – 27 ROADS
2018-10-01The road has been a central motif in the work of Robert Adams since the beginning of his life as a photographer, and 27 Roads is the first exhibition to focus on this fundamental aspect of his work. Whether concrete highways, quiet cuts through dark forests, paved commercial strips or dusty tracks on a clear-cut mountainside, Adams’ roads serve as thoughtful metaphors for solitude, connection or freedom.
The exhibition features photographs from Adams’ most well-known and treasured series dating from 1968 to 2013, including The New West, Denver, Prairie, From the Missouri West, California, Listening to the River, and An Old Forest Road. Over many years of exploring this theme, Adams has been drawn to writers who contemplate the symbolism of the road, and the potential of any neglected dirt road or byway to be a place of value. Among the poets who inspired Adams are Wendell Berry, who wrote in The Timbered Choir: “There is a day/when the road neither/comes nor goes, and the way/is not a way but a place.”
Opposite – Along Federal Highway 287. North of Laporte, Larimer County, Colorado, 1977
Exhibition runs through to October 20th, 2018
Fraenkel Gallery
49 Geary Street
San Francisco
94108 CA
