Robert Adams (born 1937) is an American photographer who has focused on the changing landscape of the American West. His work first came to prominence in the mid-1970s

During his childhood, Adams often accompanied his father on walks and hikes through the woods In 1966, he began to teach only part-time to have more time to photograph.

  • 1989: The Philadelphia Museum of Art. Mid-career retrospective. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 2005; Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, 2006; Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.
  • 2008, Rencontres d'Arles festival, Arles, France.
  • 2010–2014: The Place We Live, a Retrospective Selection of Photographs. Retrospective. Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, 2010–2011; Denver Art Museum, 2011–2012; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2012; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, 2012; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, 2013; , Quadrat, Bottrop, Germany, 2013; Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2014; Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland, 2014.
  • 2012: On Any Given Day in Spring and Light Balances, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
  • 2015: Green/Gray: Photographs in the Los Angeles Basin, Matthew Marks Gallery, Los Angeles
  • 2018: A Right to Stand, Fondation A Stichting, Brussels. Traveled to Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation, Paris (catalogue)
  • 2022: American Silence: The Photographs of Robert Adams, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Awards

  • 1973: Guggenheim Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
  • 1973: Photographer's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
  • 1978: Photographer's Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.
  • 1994: MacArthur Fellowship from the MacArthur Foundation.
  • 1995: Spectrum International Prize for Photography from the Foundation of Lower Saxony.
  • 2006: Deutsche Börse Photography Prize for the exhibition Turning Back at Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany.
  • 2014: Elected to American Academy of Arts and Letters
  • 2020: Induction into the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum.

Collections

Adams' work is held in the following public collections:

  • Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
  • Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
  • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
  • Museum of Modern Art, New York
  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
  • Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
  • Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, TX
  • Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury, VT
  • Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
  • National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

References

  • – hosted at the Yale University Art Gallery site
  • Adams at Masters of Photography
  • Adams photographs taken at twilight, as shown at the Victoria and Albert Museum