Robert Adams: The Place We Live, a Retrospective Selection of Photographs

I thought i’d add a few words and many images about a couple of exhibitions i saw in Madrid a few weeks ago. Just like Anonymization, these two are photo exhibitions. If it weren’t for the fact that exhibitions are planned years in advance, I’d be wondering whether the current crisis is the reason why Madrid has so many photo shows right now. They are easier/cheaper to ship, install, insure? Maybe?

Anyway, let’s kick off with Robert Adams: The Place We Live, a Retrospective Selection of Photographs at the Reina Sofia because it is simply stunning.

Since the 1960s, Robert Adams has been documenting the landscape of the American West. Lonely roads, small town lights, deforested woods, the Pacific, the great plains, the suburban residential estates, the truck stops and the shopping malls. The paradises lost and the ones about to be built.

For a European like me, there’s something extremely exotic about his images. It’s the Colorado i see in old Hollywood movies. Yet, the urban development and the over-exploitation of natural resources are realities we are all familiar with.

Robert Adams, Longmont, Colorado, from the series ‘Summer Nights’, about 1982 (printed 1989)

Robert Adams, Burning oil sludge, north of Denver, Colorado, 1973-1974

Robert Adams, Longmont, Colorado, 1973-1974

Robert Adams, Santa Ana Wash, Redlands, California, 1983, printed 1991

Robert Adams, In a New Subdivision, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1969

Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1969

Robert Adams, Frame for a Tract House, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1969

Robert Adams, Alameda Avenue, Denver, 1970

Robert Adams, Pikes Peak, Colorado Springs, 1969

Robert Adams, Lakewood, Colorado, 1968-1971

Robert Adams, Sitka spruce, Cape Blanco State Park, Curry County, Oregon, 1999-2000

Robert Adams: The Place We Live, a Retrospective Selection of Photographs is at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid until 20 may 2013.

The other retrospective i wanted to mention is dedicated to the Galician photographer Virxilio Vieitez.

Virxilio Vieitez (Pontevedra, 1930-2008), one of the most important photographers of Spain’s photographic history, carried out commissioned works, particularly intended for Galicians who had emigrated to Argentina, Mexico and Venezuela and wished to keep a visual record of their families in Galicia.

Almost no one ever smiles in those photos. Besides, people often chose to pose with some atypical companions: a radio, a goat, a couple of potted flowers.

Dorotea do Cará, Soutelo de Montes, 1960-61