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Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Adams, Robert, 1937-  Search this
Interviewer:
Jurovics, Toby, 1965-  Search this
Names:
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
Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984  Search this
Baltz, Lewis, 1945-2014  Search this
Castelli, Leo  Search this
Gowin, Emmet, 1941-  Search this
Hoffman, Michael  Search this
Newhall, Beaumont, 1908-1993  Search this
O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882  Search this
Szarkowski, John  Search this
Wood, Myron  Search this
Extent:
43 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
2010 July 20
Scope and Contents:
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.
Biographical / Historical:
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.
General:
Originally recorded on 3 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 57 min.
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.
Restrictions:
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.
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
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.adams10
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9b69a063f-cad0-4419-837f-79627e7aa458
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-adams10