Kerstin enjoying the wind, East of Keota, Colorado c. 1969 - 1977

Curator: Robert Adams captured this gelatin silver print, titled “Kerstin enjoying the wind, East of Keota, Colorado,” sometime between 1969 and 1977. Editor: It's…lonely, isn't it? The figure is so small under that sky. It’s almost overwhelming. You can practically feel the emptiness of the landscape pressing in. Curator: Indeed. Formally, the photograph utilizes a stark, nearly square composition. The tonal range emphasizes the contrast between the dark, ominous clouds and the bleached earth. The human figure serves as a point of scale, accentuating the vastness. Editor: Right, she’s facing the horizon, her hands behind her head, almost surrendering to the wildness. Makes you think about what she's feeling, the wind whipping through her hair, the storm gathering. A little bit romantic, maybe? Curator: It can be interpreted as romantic, certainly. The photograph engages with themes common in Adams’ work, the intersection of the sublime and the mundane, the relationship between humanity and the altered, often ecologically damaged landscape of the American West. Note the insistent horizontality—the plane of the land bisected by the receding fence. Editor: Ecological damage? Is that what the scene projects? I mean, maybe. It also suggests just the raw, unadulterated power of nature, like a force she almost relishes confronting. Like that storm’s bearing down to swallow the horizon. Curator: The fence introduces a human-made element which signifies demarcation and the manipulation of land, and provides the photographic architecture for further analysis. Its repetitive vertical posts run in contrast to the dominant horizontal, an interplay signifying… Editor: Okay, okay. So there's more than meets the eye. And this single human subject allows for greater speculation when interpreting its social commentaries...It really draws you in, whether you want to think about art history or something. Curator: It is, fundamentally, an artful construction. I appreciate the economy of the artist’s vision, how simple forms coalesce into something of considerable depth and visual intrigue. Editor: Totally. It's more than just a snapshot; you start feeling the weather too. I reckon I felt that wind now, even if its conceptual value seemed to initially pass me by.