Old road west from Cañon City, Colorado 1977

Robert Adams made this photograph, "Old road west from Cañon City, Colorado," with film, light, and paper. It's like a drawing, but with a camera. The textures are amazing, right? The scrubby bushes, the way the light rakes across the land. Look at that shadow on the left, how it just cuts into the scene. It's a stark contrast, but it also reveals the layers of the earth, the way the road was carved out. You can almost feel the grit under your feet. Adams is known for his landscapes of the American West. It's like he's saying, "Hey, look at this. This is what we've done to the land." Think of someone like Timothy O'Sullivan, but with a modern sensibility. There's beauty here, but also a sense of loss, of something that's been altered, maybe forever. It's a conversation about how we see, and what we choose to see.