Neahkahnie Mountain, Oregon 2004

Robert Adams made this gelatin silver print, Neahkahnie Mountain, Oregon, sometime in his life, capturing a tangle of leaves against an overcast sky. I feel I'm right there with Robert, peering up through the branches. Look at how he's framed the leaves so they fill the whole view. Are they dancing, swaying in the wind? Or is that my imagination? The whole scene has been distilled through Adams' darkroom process. You know, it's funny how photography can feel so immediate, like capturing a moment in time, but it's also a process of translation, of transforming light and shadow into something else entirely. It reminds me of painting, where you're always trying to capture something elusive, something just beyond reach. I see Adams’ work as part of a larger conversation, a conversation about how we see, how we feel, and how we make sense of the world around us, each artist building on the discoveries of those who came before, each adding their own unique voice to the mix.