Oregon 1999 - 2001

Robert Adams made this black and white photograph called "Oregon," and just look at it, it’s so stark! At first glance, I thought, "What is that thing?" It’s this big, hulking piece of machinery, like a giant’s discarded toy, resting in a field of debris. I can almost feel what it might have been like for Adams, walking through this space, seeing the contrast between the natural landscape and the mechanical intrusion. The way the light catches the metal edges, creating these sharp, geometric forms against the organic mess of the cut-down forest. It’s a real punch in the gut, you know? So industrial, like a machine made of teeth. Adams, in this photo, he’s doing something that all artists do: he's asking us to stop and consider what we see. To see a place completely changed, scarred even, and to think about what that means. He shows us how beauty and destruction can exist in the same frame.