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Interviewee:
Adams, Robert Hickman, 1937-  Search this
Interviewer:
Jurovics, Toby, 1965-  Search this
Subject:
Adams, Ansel  Search this
Baltz, Lewis  Search this
Castelli, Leo  Search this
Gowin, Emmet  Search this
Hoffman, Michael  Search this
Newhall, Beaumont  Search this
O'Sullivan, Timothy H.  Search this
Szarkowski, John  Search this
Wood, Myron  Search this
Denver Art Museum  Search this
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Fellows in Photography  Search this
MacArthur Fellows Program  Search this
Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)  Search this
Type:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Place of publication, production, or execution:
Oregon
Physical Description:
43 Pages, Transcript
General Note:
Originally recorded on 3 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 57 min.
Access Note / Rights:
Audio: ACCESS RESTRICTED; use requires written permission. Contact Archives Reference Services for information.
Use of the audio of this interview, with permission, requires an appointment and is limited to the Archives of American Art reading rooms.
Summary:
An interview of Robert Adams conducted 2010 July 20, by Toby Jurovics, for the Archives of American Art, at Adams' home, in Astoria, Oregon.
Robert Adams speaks of compensating his early struggles with polio with activity outdoors; his close relationship with his father through outdoor expeditions; visiting the Denver Art Museum as a teenager; years of study and experimentation with photography on his own and under the direction of Myron Wood; the financial struggle of transitioning from an English professor to a full-time photographer; the outcome of his work under the Guggenheim and MacArthur Foundation Fellowships; his first sale of photographs to the Museum of Modern Art; the role of spirituality and morality in art; environmental and societal concerns such as deforestation, climate change, and overpopulation that inform much of his work; the foreboding change in landscape he has observed in the American West since the 1970s; his concern that future generations of landscape photographers may not share the same connection with the land as he has experienced; the need to change society's domineering view of the wilderness; the working relationship he shares with his wife, Kerstin; the process of publishing his photographs and the importance of quality materials and printing in these publications; the sequence of the books he has published as a reflection of his life experiences. Adams also recalls Michael Hoffman, John Szarkowski, Myron Wood, Lewis Baltz, Leo Castelli, Beaumont Newhall, Emmet Gowin, Ansel Adams, Timothy O'Sullivan, and others.
Citation:
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Robert Adams, 2010 July 20. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Additional Forms:
Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
Funding:
Funding for this interview was provided by the Brown Foundation.
Biography Note:
Robert Adams (1937- ) is a photographer in Astoria, Oregon. Toby Jurovics (1965- ) is curator of photography at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C.
Language Note:
English .
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Location Note:
Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 750 9th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20001
Topic:
Global environmental change  Search this
Landscape photography  Search this
Photographers -- Oregon -- Interviews  Search this
Photography -- Study and teaching  Search this
Poliomyelitis -- Patients -- Rehabilitation  Search this
Record number:
(DSI-AAA_CollID)15886
(DSI-AAA_SIRISBib)295750
AAA_collcode_adams10
Data Source:
Archives of American Art
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:AAADCD_oh_295750