From Interstate 25, north edge of Denver 1973

Robert Adams made this photograph, “From Interstate 25, north edge of Denver,” with a camera, of course. The grey scale is so precise and sensitive, like a perfectly tuned piano. It’s easy to overlook photography as a process, but it absolutely is. I find myself focusing on the billboard in the top left, cropped by the frame of the image. It’s interesting to think about the choice to include it, what is in the frame, and what is left out. This object is a stark contrast to the scene depicted, houses, sky, trees, grass, elements of the everyday world. It reminds me a little of some of Ed Ruscha’s photographic books, but with a more melancholic feel. Ultimately, art is a conversation, and Adams is speaking to the artists that came before and those that will come after. There is no one way to interpret this image, and that’s what makes it so compelling.