A matinee at a mall, Lakewood, Colorado Possibly 1973 - 2007

This photograph, "A matinee at a mall, Lakewood, Colorado," was shot by Robert Adams. You can immediately tell that the composition here is incredibly rigid. Everything is straight, and perpendicular, except for the soft blurs of human activity. Adams wasn't hiding anything; he wasn't making something up, or even staging a scene. It feels so real. The people are anonymous, captured in motion, with only a few faces visible. It's about the banality of a suburban movie theater, captured in a way that feels both detached and intimate. Look at the texture of the carpet, the rows of empty seats, and that massive blank screen. It's a study in contrasts, right? The soft focus on the movie-goers and the hard, unyielding geometry of the architecture. Adams shares something with the New Topographics photographers. Like them, his work asks us to question our relationship to the places we inhabit, and whether or not these places really reflect us.