Adobe chapel, Medina Plaza, along the Purgatory River, Colorado 1964

Robert Adams made this photograph of the Adobe chapel in Colorado. I imagine him walking around, finding just the right spot. You see how the wall takes up almost half the frame, like a blank canvas, rough and textured? Adams probably noticed that too. He turns the side of a simple, unadorned building into something monumental. The bell tower with its cross reaches up into the dark sky. I’m thinking about light, how it rakes across surfaces, revealing every imperfection and casting sharp shadows. It's a document, sure, but also a meditation on place, history, and the act of seeing. Like the New Topographics photographers, Adams asks us to consider our relationship with the land, the built environment, and each other. Photography has the capacity to allow us to question what we see, and in turn, who we are.