On Robert Adams

“After people live awhile in a place to which they’ve laid waste, it gets to be easy to hate a great many things. Including themselves. And anything green that tries to rise again.” Robert Adams “There is another world and it is in this one.”  Paul Éluard There have been few post-war American photographers, if […]

Dreamscapes and Sensory Experience – An Interview with Bill Henson (2015)

“It was the dreamscape of the suburbs that interested me.”   An Interview with Bill Henson by Sabine Mirlesse Sabine Mirlesse: 1985 is work you shot thirty years ago – what were you doing in Egypt? Bill Henson: As a boy I was obsessed with Egypt and Egyptology. I’m convinced it’s not that uncommon. A […]

Robert Adams on Working at Home and Photography as Metaphor (2009)

“By definition art is not propaganda; the goal is not to excite people to action but to help them find a sense of wholeness and thereby a sense of calm.”   Excerpt from a 2014 Hasselblad Award chat transcript Question: Congratulations! You have been taking pictures of the American West for four decades now. Why […]

Bill Owens: “American Photography and the American Dream” (excerpt) (1991)

The people in Owen’s book Suburbia, are still under the “spell” of the American Dream. They live in California suburban communities where, according to Owens, “everyone… lives ‘the good life’, which means having attractive homes, high paying jobs, swimming pools and shiny cars.”   By James Guimond, excerpt from American Photography and the American Dream, […]

Robert Adams – “Turning Back” (2012)

In conjunction with the museum’s spring 2007 exhibit “Robert Adams: Turning Back” we sent Daniel Houghton ’06 to Oregon to interview photographer Robert Adams. Robert Adams (born May 8, 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 through […]

Robert Adams on Books, Shows and Survival in Photography (Excerpt) (2011)

 “Having a book allows you to prove that you’re not just a one or two picture photographer.”   An Interview with Alexa Dilworth of the Center for Documentary Studies, April, 2011 (Excerpt) How is having a book of one’s own photographs published important to a photographer? RA: It allows you to respond effectively to your […]

Todd Hido: “Ohio” (2009)

From Ohio, 2009  By Doug Rickard The clouds are passing by gently… the pale blue sky smiles because it is summer again and the sun beams its warm rays down into your suburban backyard in the Midwest. You’re standing there looking at the white house next door and the curtains are closed. The dry weeds sting […]

Interview with Bill Owens on Photographing the Suburban Soul (2005)

 “I enjoy cooking, dogs, cats, kids, soccer, and living here.” “No one would have predicted I would succeed at anything.” Interview by Robert Hirsch of Light Research Bill Owens’s Suburbia (1972) is a quintessential photographic study of suburban California life and of its rituals. Owens followed with Our Kind of People (1975), which examined political, […]