The Sea Beach 2015

Robert Adams made this photograph, ‘The Sea Beach’, with film and a camera; the date is unknown. The tones are soft, quiet, and greyscale; it’s like a delicate wash of ink on paper. I find that process-focused, pared-back aesthetic so compelling; for me, it speaks to a way of seeing the world, one that’s not about imposing your will, but about gentle observation. Look closely at the top-right corner, see that big, billowy cloud? It's almost like a brushstroke, a sweep of dark grey against the lighter sky. And then, below, the flat plane of the sea, with its barely-there ripples, mirroring the sky's complexity with its own quiet simplicity. There's a tension there, a push and pull between the heavy and the light, the detailed and the sparse. Thinking about other artists, I'm reminded of the stark, empty landscapes of Agnes Martin, or the atmospheric cloudscapes of Gerhard Richter, both of whom share Adams’ interest in capturing the sublime in the everyday. It's this ongoing dialogue, this conversation across time and mediums, that makes art so endlessly fascinating.