Robert Adams

Robert Adams, Untitled, Denver, 1970-74. Copyright Robert Adams

Robert Adams, whom I don't know, strikes me as among the most gentle of men. He is certainly among the gentlest and least demonstrative of photographers. Although his subject is the death of the West, his pictures are filled with light. Still, I wasn't surprised by the following exchange, which appears in his recent "Along Some Rivers."

"What disappoints you most about America now?"

"Its elevation of greed to a public virtue . . . "

"Where do the political calamities of recent years lead you?"

"Kerstin and I have, like many, thought about leaving, and we continue to think about it, although our age is an obstacle. The question is where. Kerstin is from Sweden, and we admire many of the values there, so we consider it, but the language is a barrier for me. . . . I had a Jewish colleague who took the last train out of Germany. That's cutting it too close. . . . "

Of course, Adams spoke these words before last week's elections. Maybe he's changed his mind since. Or maybe, like any prudent person, he already had a ticket anyway.

(Fraenkel Gallery has a nice slide show (three, actually) of Adams' work.)