Nehalem Spit, Tillamook County, Oregon Possibly 2000 - 2009

Robert Adams made this photograph of Nehalem Spit in Tillamook County, Oregon, using a camera and black and white film. What strikes me is the tonal range, how he coaxes so much variation from the limited palette of grayscale. It's all about the nuances, right? The surface is so smooth, so velvety. You can almost feel the dampness of the sand and the cool mist in the air. I love the way the light glimmers on the wet sand, creating these subtle horizontal lines that pull you into the scene. Notice how the horizon line isn't perfectly straight? It gives the photograph a kind of vulnerability, a sense of the world being slightly off-kilter. It reminds me of some of the seascapes of Gustave Le Gray, who was also exploring the subtleties of light and atmosphere in photography back in the 19th century. Ultimately, this is a picture about seeing, about slowing down and noticing the quiet beauty of the world around us.