Oral history interview with Robert Adams
odd: label: General
content: Originally recorded on 3 memory cards. Reformatted in 2010 as 5 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr., 57 min.
name: label: Interviewee
content: Adams, Robert, 1937-
label: Interviewer
content: Jurovics, Toby, 1965-
label: Names
content: Denver Art Museum
label: Names
content: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Fellows in Photography
label: Names
content: MacArthur Fellows Program
label: Names
content: Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.)
label: Names
content: Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984
label: Names
content: Baltz, Lewis, 1945-2014
label: Names
content: Castelli, Leo
label: Names
content: Gowin, Emmet, 1941-
label: Names
content: Hoffman, Michael
label: Names
content: Newhall, Beaumont, 1908-1993
label: Names
content: O'Sullivan, Timothy H., 1840-1882
label: Names
content: Szarkowski, John
label: Names
content: Wood, Myron
topic: label: Topic
content: Global environmental change
label: Topic
content: Landscape photography
label: Topic
content: Photographers -- Oregon -- Interviews
label: Topic
content: Photography -- Study and teaching
label: Topic
content: Poliomyelitis -- Patients -- Rehabilitation
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: 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.
creator: label: Interviewee
content: Adams, Robert, 1937-
label: Interviewer
content: Jurovics, Toby, 1965-
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: Robert Adams (1937- ) is a photographer in Astoria, Oregon.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.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 43 Pages (Transcript)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 2010 July 20
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives of American Art
identifier: label: Identifier
content: AAA.adams10
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Pages
label: Type
content: Sound recordings
label: Type
content: Interviews
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Transcript is available on the Archives of American Art's website.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Sound recordings
label: Genre/Form
content: Interviews
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: An interview of Robert Adams conducted 2010 July 20, by Toby Jurovics, for the Archives of American Art, at Adams' home, in Astoria, Oregon.
label: Scope and Contents
content: 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.