Prairie

From the mid-1960s to the present, Robert Adams (b. 1937) has unassumingly yet steadily become one of the most important photographers of his day. Inspired by a love of the American landscape and motivated by deeply-held principles of ecological stewardship, Adams has produced a penetrating vision of a rapidly changing topography. If "Denver" and "What We Bought" together with "The New West" form a loose trilogy of Adam's work exploring the developing landscape of the Denver metropolitan area from 1968 through 1974, "Prairie" represents a postscript study of that vast inland expanse know as the Great Plains, at the edge of which sits "Denver", before the Rocky Mountains rise to their snow-capped heights. The images published in "Prairie" depict the landscape and farmhouses, the gravel roads and trees, the broad sky and furrowed fields so familiar to anyone having travelled through that part of the country. Adams' compositions are frank and unsentimental, but with a nod to the poetic and overlooked. It is this conscientious attention to the small nuanced aspects of daily life that has made Adams one of the most influential figures in the history of American photography. Originally published in 1978 by the Denver Art Museum, "Prairie" is being reissued with an expanded selection of images made at the same time and chosen and sequenced by Adams. Many of these newly added photographs have never been published before. This handsome new edition, printed in rich tritone, celebrates an early body of work that has remained unknown by most, until now.

Robert Adams lives and works in the northwestern Oregon. His art has been the subject of exhibitions at museums throughout the United States. Eric Paddock is curator of photography at the Denver Art Museum.