Robert Adams: The New West [Hardcover]

Robert Adams (Photographer), John Szarkowski (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2008 | ISBN-10: 1597110604 | ISBN-13: 978-1597110600 | Edition: 3

Originally published in 1974, Robert Adams' The New West signaled a paradigm shift in the photographic representation of American landscapes. Foregoing photography's traditional role of romanticizing the Western landscape, Adams focused instead on the construction of tract and mobile homes, subdivisions, shopping centers and urban sprawl in the suburbs of Colorado Springs and the Denver area. Adams transmuted these zones with his minimalist vision of their austerity; as he has noted, "no place is boring, if you've had a good night's sleep and have a pocket full of unexposed film." Objective and direct, Adams' photographs, rendered in his signature middle-gray scale, unsentimentally depict a despoiled landscape washed in the intense Colorado sunlight. Today The New West stands alongside Walker Evans' American Photographs, Robert Frank's The Americans and Stephen Shore's Uncommon Places in the pantheon of landmark projects on American culture and society. This second reissue of the classic publication has been recreated from Adams' original prints, and will be released ahead of a major traveling exhibition that will launch in 2010. Foreword by John Szarkowski.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Irony abounds here: a neon gas station sign sports the word 'Frontier,' and a 'Buffalo for Sale' sign along the highway boasts one lonely buffalo in the photograph. Cow culture has given way to car culture--drive-in restaurants and movie theaters. Graffiti is scribbled on Lookout Mountain--modern-day cave paintings." --B&W: Black & White Magazine

"Adams' book helped create a new kind of landscape photography, tough-minded about the mess humans make, that's been pursued by Richard Misrach, Edward Burtynsky and scores of others. " -- Richard Lacayo --Time Magazine

Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: Aperture; 3 edition (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1597110604
• ISBN-13: 978-1597110600
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #675,269 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The (old) new west, October 7, 2003

By 

Dennis Witmer (Fairbanks, AK USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range (Hardcover)

The New West is one of the most significant works of photography in the 20th century, presenting the reality of the western landscape in harsh contrast to the mythology of the other Adams... The pictures cut straight to the bone, showing the damage done to a landscape by our progress, but always the light is perfect, the skies brilliant, and the distant horizon intact. This work is a challenge to photographers, to see the world clearly, and to others, who struggle to live with the earth, rather than on it.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New edition makes me want for more, April 24, 2003

By 

Stuart Murdoch "everything in photography is ... (Melbourne Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The New West: Landscapes Along the Colorado Front Range (Hardcover)

The return of this beautiful book is as inspiring as the book itself. Never having seen the original however makes it hard to compare editions but as I am a BIG Adams fan the work is stunnning, the neat categories help the beginner to understand Mr Adams and where he is coming from.