Rialto, California 1982

Robert Adams created this photograph, "Rialto, California," and you can almost feel him there, breathing it in, one foot in front of the other. The print is a study in grayscale, but not a flat one. It’s got depth, a layered grey, almost like a watercolor wash. I'm thinking about what Adams was thinking when he took the shot. Was he trying to capture the nothingness of suburban sprawl, or was he interested in the way even the most mundane landscape could have a strange, almost mournful beauty? Look how the mountains sit so far away in the background. There's a plane, up high. Just a tiny mark. It's a reminder that there's a whole world beyond this. A world that’s moving fast, while this scene stays put. Maybe we can see that our view of the world is a conversation and exchange of ideas across time, and our creativity inspires others as theirs inspires us.