Emulation proposal- Robert Adams

Hayden Done

Julee Holcombe

ARTS 552

Emulation

            For my final project, I wasn’t sure who I wanted to emulate. I don’t know many artists by name, so I didn’t even know where to start. It wasn’t until Julee gave me some suggestions for my portfolio. I checked out the artists that she recommended for the project. I looked at Eliot Porter, John Gossage, and finally Robert Adams. All of their photographs were good and had a story to tell, but Adams’ photos spoke to me on a level that the others didn’t.

            In Why People Photograph, Adams tells the reader how landscapes can change over the years. He first gives us a mental image of a beautiful plateau that is then turned into an urbanized mess of houses and roadways. He started photographing this place because of its beauty and it was close to his home. He then continued to keep photographing to show how the culture of the landscape changes due to human nature. I want to take photos that can preserve a landscape for future generations to look back on and see how we have changed our world.

            For my project I want to show the beauties of nature but to also “to include in the photographs evidence of man”. (Sandeen, 2009) I want to use his process of going to what is close to home and take photos around Vermont to show landscapes and churches and how people have influenced them.

Works Cited

Sandeen, Eric. “Robert Adams and Colorado’s Cultural Landscapes: Picturing Tradition and Development in the New West.” Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, vol. 16, no. 1, 2009, pp. 97–116., doi:10.1353/bdl.0.0019.

Adams, Robert. Why People Photograph: Selected Essays and Reviews. Aperture, 1994.