Countless Miles of Photographs with Robert Adams

with a camera in my hand I suddenly had an excuse to walk miles and miles and I discovered a a sense of quiet and space and above all light I discovered rather abruptly that I really really found some answers in sunlight and quiet today it's a trip to Seattle flying from Frankfurt nonstop to Seattle and then by car uh to asoria uh that's at Pacific Coast uh at the mouth of the Columbia River asoria is the hometown of Robert Adams uh the legendary photographer and I have in my suitcase four brand new books and I will show them to him and hopefully I will make him happy when I wanted to do the first book with him I invited him to come to Germany as regular as every artist has to pop up at sheville and uh he said no I don't travel so you have to come to me and I had no idea where he was living then I found out it's the end of the world a little village at the mouth of the Columbia River in the state of Oregon it's even going to be hot hotter on the 4th mhm 85 they're predicting here but see you're going to be by the water you're going to by be by the o so it'll be cool there it'll be 20° cooler mhm most of his photos he has taken in the state of Oregon around his house in the forest and at the seaside the photos are showing the beauty of nature but when you look carefully you see always little Footprints of human beings who have destroyed elements of this nature and you can see in the photos that he has taken them with pain in his heart but welcome to Oregon you made it you must have had terrible traffic so anyway you're safe i' glad glad you're in one piece yeah yeah Josh is testing one two three testing testing you know we're all a result of our upbringing and uh I was raised in New Jersey for the first uh 10 years of my life and my father worked in Manhattan but he was raised on a farm and so on Sunday uh uh afternoon uh he would take me uh on Hikes down the hill from our house across fields and into the into this great Woods uh and it made a very deep impression on me the first thing we saw after we crossed the fields was a hollow shagar hickory tree MH and each time as we passed why my father would stop and he knew I enjoyed this when I was a child I would it the tree was so big it was split open strangely and it was just big enough so that I could get inside the tree and it was it was always astounding to be able to get inside a tree and look out Al those the the places I had loved as a boy uh were being overrun with development that um there was something that had not been damaged and it was at that time it was the clarity of the sky and the light and the shape of the land itself and I ultimately found in Anonymous ayos and and Open Fields uh sometimes right next to uh shopping malls I found something Redemptive for me in the landscape and I came to want to share it with others so that's how it began to see you yeah nice to see you before so you haded a hard long trip was long yeah yeah it was just I was looking to my watch I was waking up yesterday day at 3 and now it's exactly 24 hours well thank you thank you and thank you for making this terrible trip no it was not a terrible trip it was really amazing and the trip from the bridge over the Columbia River when you enter oron up to here is just such a beauty is on except for so there were a lot of Steel tanks in here which we removed the other day yeah my dark room was I I was closing my dark room in 1980 but it was looking the same it's you know a little bit tough uh but as I told Sharon it's not going to be nearly as hard as as getting rid of the workbench for wood out in the garage which my father and I made 40 years ago together [Music] so everything has a beginning and an end you so you still work with Jim Dy yes so you're not going over there time I just comes into my mind that I don't forget and I still work with Jim Dy and I still work with Joel sternfeld oh good and Joel is since 10 days at gutting we are working on two books and here's a letter from him oh he wrote it yesterday evening said I have to deliver it all right good good sounds good small world it's just a family yes okay so now let's open this hit case this was so heavy this must be two copies three three okay okay you want you want a pair of scissors oops this was the hardest to get bound uh because it's I believe it 70% of the work is handmade and they have not enough employees anymore yeah in the boundaries company you had before 20 people is now working with eight and so everything takes time time time why is that girl is it just we have not uh not enough work so binder when uh when when it has to be profitable you have to make two shifts and you have to work with 50 people uh but there's not enough work for two shifts and uh so the old people went on to retire ironment and um and there are no young people who want to learn book binding right so before we start looking at it I built up the library table with all the new arrivals I take the plastic garbage uh back in my suitcase I'm curious about this book is this the one where they printed on the on on fabric yeah did you have to experiment with that yeah uh it is it is not very easy uh you need the cloth needs uh to get a special treatment on the on the front is an kind of impregnation and then uh it needs a lot of of um a lot of pressure when it runs through the press and it's good though yeah yeah that's has a nice feeling good very organic yeah no it's it's uh this paper touch it is an unced paper I have created it with a German paper mill it is a stle paper we call it kamiko and um it is uh prepared in a special way to print photograph free like on a coated paper but it is uncoated we are spraying into the surface Titan oxide so Titan oxide is a non-toxic powder what you use for example for acrylic ink yeah so painters use it for acrylic ink Titan white you this is a this is a uh quadrone printing it is two blacks one gray and uh one um one dark gray and one light gray oh you hit it just right my friend it looks very very good it looks s seem beautiful about yeah no it's it's so delicate it's it's lasts forever it's not aging forever yeah that's better than we are so did you see the see the cover isn't that wonderful small Beauty small Beauty yeah it captures exactly the feeling of the place so wonderful you use the same paper on for this book uh this one has the same paper how many did you print of these uh 3,000 from all of them I hope I hope you sell them all I'm sure I'm sure but we made for all all the books three rounds of wet proof printing you know to take real paper and just printed the files uh made a another correction another correction three rounds three rounds yeah what do you do to control your nerves drinking a glass of red wine in the evening red wine that helps yeah it even smells good your heart yeah oh thank you Mig gosh well this is a big relief you know I've you know they've been in these have been in the catalog for about three years and I've been thinking years years and I've been thinking gosh is it is it ever going to you know I I didn't get into this to make a pile of money just like you didn't but I got into it to try to to to tell other people that I saw something that I think would help them like it help me and uh so than you have the books I have the books and and the books are faithful so thank you so [Music] next that's um a a printed uh off white so here you see the paper white coming through and that has a a little tone that's an interesting choice of uh of end paper I would I would not have that's perfect of course yeah but it works very well because it it it looks a little golden it gives a little shine to yeah yeah nice big type for us blind people Josh has probably told you this is the when you look out Eastward this is where I was raised uh just about 10 miles out onto the open but um good good all of this of course has changed a lot since the pictures were taken mhm somebody living in Denver now will find that pretty strange but uh maybe it'll help them help them understand where it started anyway wow that's very nicely done all right the big beautiful one that is a book that I'm PR particularly indebted to you for uh doing it um your heart because I had I gotten so used to those pictures being relatively small this size pictures you seem to be able to go into the picture and it was was um it was a learning experience and I treasure that book a lot I hope it sells I I would like to it will it will this is so beautiful you but when it was radi I could always cry was really one of the of the best uh releases we ever did I don't know how many colors of cloth you have to choose from but that was direct from the gods yeah when the book was ready the cloth Manufacturing Company went bankrupt so I'm not sure if we can get it for a second print run oh oh because really dead nothing so this is it for this yeah boy and the the surface is absolutely matte so we printed with uh matte inks and on top we have two uh sealers of met warish two hits we printed one sealer on one day have it dry drying in the night and then the next day a second sealer on top of it and that makes it so absolutely smooth did you anticipate having to do that before you had one or did you I mean no we looked at it and was not satisfying then we decided it needs a a second hit that's beautiful wow well I'm a happy man I can tell yeah well thank you thank you girl that's remarkable to find somebody who cared as much as I did so I love that that cloth that is kind of a blue gray it's a blue gray yeah yeah that's that's really lovely gosh I'll put that that's that's okay I'll just put it in the drawer um make the gallery presentation perfect m oh well a special time when you arrive yeah well I know it's been a terrible 24 hours but it was worth it for us so my next life I will be a decorator in the book store is that right and what are you going to do in your next life I well if I could be I'd be a photographer the same way but um at first I thought I wanted to be an architect and then I didn't have not a bad choice to be a photographer yeah that's a nice choice it's that is that Perfect Light aesthetically they belong very well together not they do they do they're all totally different that's really my my philosophy of making books all individual sizes do not repeat make it as individual as possible for the certain body of uh photography that's made for Yosh so that he also can benefit yeah his effort I think he hopes to be here in the middle of the day tomorrow so he' be very pleased you know Bob used to have a separate Studio down here um there was an old uh caner building and uh the whole Canary building burned down one day maybe about 10 years ago yeah he had he had a bunch of stuff in there that's where we did a lot of the editing I think my first visit was in 2006 Bob has worked with a lot of people um and really the person that he trusted the most in his book editing was his wife sherston and um when I came into the picture uh we became a kind of Trio in in in forming and conceptualizing the the books and I think it was imp part that that Synergy that we found that was so rare for all of us that we decided to keep making more and so it's actually very moving to come here and work on the very last book good just got up about 20 minutes ago sorry yeah yeah you can continue to SLE if you'd like come on in no I have not shaved yet so well first of all I enjoyed teaching teaching wasn't bad I did it for nine years but um slowly I realized that uh it was a profession that demanded more of me than than I thought I had to give uh I learned that students not surprisingly are not really asking their teachers for information asking them for an example of how to how to live for me the big change came when my wife and I went to Europe for a summer and I suddenly saw a a culture that was stable and uh had what seemed to me a greater respect for the land than Americans the so I think in Europe Strangely I found an example of something to hope for okay in in America uh I have to admit that I have not really discovered much here in subsequent years that reaches that level uh but it's always stood for me as something as a testament to how the human Spirit can revive itself after the second world war so when I came back I determined that I wanted to see if there was anything that seemed to be going in that direction in America and I couldn't find anything okay so we get to look at the books together for the first time this is a real nice opportunity to to just enjoy them and and remember what we can remember about some of the decisions that we made and what we like about how they turned out mhm um which is just about everything yeah yeah but where would you like to start should we start with LA spring up to you whatever whatever sounds good the one thing that I do notice in the four the four titles we have here is that none of them was sherson was unable to be a part of any of the actual taking of the pictures of the four books true uncommon which is kind of uncommon and which was inevitable but uh she was bringing in the money and stability while having been out through the center of the night and wondering if you were awake or not no no sometimes I was standing on the back porch waiting for you well and I remember you're walking in that back gate yeah and I was so glad to see you you back I was I was glad myself yeah the effort behind this book was to try to make it in many ways more true to what I you what you told me about the experience of making the work yeah that's right the first version for some reason rather I felt Duty bound to create a Rosy uh Rosy picture of of the quiet night uh but in fact as you know uh several things happened I was stopped repeatedly by the police those pictures which registered some of that edginess got edited out of the first book and reinserted in the right later versions you also went back to the negatives and and printed a new gosh some some of some of the pictures that that also reinforce this more Sinister aspect ECT of the work our our nickname for for the one I think you're thinking about is the uh Mur Murder House murder house yeah go yeah this one yep yep that's right not too long before I lost my bodyguard I had to go back home to Eastern Washington uh we worked photographing opposite a house which about a week later there was a triple murder and uh so anyway it's life and and it's both good and bad and peaceful and and otherwise but uh I think we improved it by getting it closer to the mix that life is made of uh so that's a place where I was stopped by the cops uh within five minutes yeah why is this why why is this man with with a camera doing this he said well I'm taking a picture of a sidewalk Cas and they were not convinced and he couldn't show them the screen immediately so anyway it was it was tense but it was satisfying and and uh if I had something to do again it would be more yeah more night pictures well a lot of the younger photographers that I've uh met with over the past few years um can't wait to get their hands on this CU this is totally unavailable to them uh you know I think it's going for a few hundred even if you can find one so I do think that um even though there's has that there hasn't been that many years that have passed since we did this it was sold out within a year of of our doing it and so some of them only know it by Legend oh that's that's too bad yeah so I've never seen this done before it's it's just just makes me want to open it and this makes me doubly want to open it D where the heck is this place exactly but this was the place where everything changed for me really this this book made the difference in my life too it was the first time I understood what you were doing is that right yeah and I remember looking at the Conta sheets here in atoria Jen I should point out that this remind us all has been my my first and trusted picture editor and text editor yes and uh we haven't always agreed but um but most of the time we have and so it wouldn't have happened without it's because I love the photographs well and yeah because you care um the pictures I took there changed my life um they showed me that you could find uh in a way you could find perfection even in very modest and in some ways harmed Landscapes sometimes a very hes for Colorado but I'm not sure I really want to see it anymore what I'm told is by friends who live in the uh region that we would not recognize we live in the middle of a of a beautiful place in some ways and the in the middle of a tragedy in other ways and the the the job of a of a landscape photographer it began to seem to me was to tell the truth about both facts so it's very hard for me to to even begin to to explain why the natural landscape is so important it's just part of what makes life uh worth living um so to see it abused of course is is is bad this is a series of pictures that always makes me ache wishing I could be back then uh because I know there are more pictures to do and that's that's home just over the top of that Mesa there that's that's that's M that's well that's wheed rdge that's that's where I went to high school and [Music] so so you two met in this area first met as uh in college it was spring time and orange blossoms orange blossoms everything was crazy yeah and you remember every time you stood and photographed each I do I do virtually it's strange but I do remember being there what I'm proud of in this book is how we managed to convey the the the real the the density of of the of the atmosphere that's the tricky part uh because if it's just if it's just dark or just light it's it's not the real thing because it feels heavy yeah exactly so you have every right to be proud of it all these spaces now as you probably know are filled with uh warehouses uh what used to be orange groves are these enormous acreages of warehouses you know as an old person you can't help but wish you were back there doing it again doing better yeah every one of these pictures I think man if I could do that there what if I'd walk 20 more steps it depends on when I'm when I'm looking at them uh so some sometimes I just feel sad for that's what I was going to say sadness is what I feel for for how this could have happened remember the smell of eucalyptus oh yes yeah oh almost as good as orange blossoms I'm glad I did what I did I'll do it over again in terms of Photography uh I can still feel even though my eyes are going oh my there's so much to to photograph uh so many just hypnotically splendid things out there so I you know I every story has a beginning and an end and so I've been very lucky and did roughly 50 years of work but boy if I had if I had the good health and eyesight and the rest I'd be out there doing it again photo photography is intimately connected with walking uh and walking is harder and harder for me uh but uh you know the the photographs reflect countless hundreds of miles so good thank you yeah good yes very good all the all the wisdom and probably a lot of foolishness that I had to share he want take a rest um depends on what you want me to do you're free now yeah I I hate to think of your editing problem at this point but B I think we can unwire you yes that is whoops

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Length: 34min 45sec (2085 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 11 2023