Robert Adams at the VAG

I went to see a Robert Adams retrospective yesterday at the Vancouver Art Gallery (wiki page here). Although Robert Adams is a bit of a heavyweight amongst the new landscape photographers of the 70's, I was unfamiliar with his work before last night. After viewing the first two series of photographs I realized that this was the work of a master of the medium. I've never seen such an experimental yet successful use of exposure, and it blew me away how at times he had no middle grey in his prints, his skies all dazzling highlights and the shadows inky dark, but both still rich in texture and detail. Each series contained from 5 - 15 photographs and in each I found photographs that brought me to a climax of artistic wonder and inspiration. The photographs were so good that by the time I was 1/3 of the way through the extensive (200+ photographs) I couldn't go on anymore. The best way to describe it (however also decidedly low-brow)was that I blew my load early and after was too overwhelmed to enjoy the rest of the work, and so me and my gallery partner walked upstairs to see an installation by Song Dong, which acted as a perfect pallet cleanse for the night. Both shows so good that I will be back next week to pick up where I left off.


Robert Adams (Unsure of title, most likely something like "Looking East From Ridge, Bewton Colorado, 1973)


Song Dong - Waste Not Want Not