CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/8/2016

Robert Adams: The New West

"Green Mountain" is reproduced from Robert Adams: The New West, Steidl's exquisitely printed fortieth anniversary edition of this New Topographics classic, first published in 1974. In the Foreword, John Szarkowski writes, "Adams' pictures describe with precision and fastidious justice some of the mortal and venial sins that we have committed against our land in recent decades. The gaggle of plywood ranch houses at the foot of the mountain, fenced in by the trailer parks, acid neon, and extruded plastic of the highway, is an affront even to our modest expectations. But his pictures also show us that these settlements express human aspirations, and that they are therefore not uninteresting. It is clear also that these places are very casually built, and wil therefore acquire character soon enough. Amateur carpenters, willful repairmen, and the fearful climate will add a sort of architectural variety. And as Adams says, the sun shines on these works also, even if not quite so brightly as it did."