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Beauty in Photography: Essays in Defense of Traditional Values
The eight essays in Beauty in Photography provide a critical appreciation of photography by one of its foremost proponents. The result is a rare book of criticism, alive to the pleasure and mysteries of true exploration.
112 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1982
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621 people want to read
About the author
Robert Adams
72 books40 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
See this thread for more information.
Robert Adams is an American photographer best known for his images of the American West. Offering solemn meditations on the landscapes of California, Colorado, and Oregon, Adams’s black-and-white photos document the changes wrought by humans upon nature. “By Interstate 70: a dog skeleton, a vacuum cleaner, TV dinners, a doll, a pie, rolls of carpet. Later, next to the South Platte River: algae, broken concrete, jet contrails, the smell of crude oil,” he wrote. “What I hope to document, though not at the expense of surface detail, is the form that underlies this apparent chaos.”
Born on May 8, 1937 in Orange, NJ, his family moved around the Midwest throughout his childhood, finally settling in Wheat Ridge, CO in 1952. Adams went on to study English at the University of Redlands and received his PhD in English from the University of Southern California in 1965. It wasn’t until the near completion of his dissertation for USC that Adams began to take photography seriously, learning techniques from professional photographer Myron Wood and reading Aperture magazine. In the 1970s, he released the book The New West (1974), and a year later was included in the seminal exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.” Adams has twice been the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and once the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Adams lives and works in Astoria, OR. Today, his works can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
See this thread for more information.
Robert Adams is an American photographer best known for his images of the American West. Offering solemn meditations on the landscapes of California, Colorado, and Oregon, Adams’s black-and-white photos document the changes wrought by humans upon nature. “By Interstate 70: a dog skeleton, a vacuum cleaner, TV dinners, a doll, a pie, rolls of carpet. Later, next to the South Platte River: algae, broken concrete, jet contrails, the smell of crude oil,” he wrote. “What I hope to document, though not at the expense of surface detail, is the form that underlies this apparent chaos.”
Born on May 8, 1937 in Orange, NJ, his family moved around the Midwest throughout his childhood, finally settling in Wheat Ridge, CO in 1952. Adams went on to study English at the University of Redlands and received his PhD in English from the University of Southern California in 1965. It wasn’t until the near completion of his dissertation for USC that Adams began to take photography seriously, learning techniques from professional photographer Myron Wood and reading Aperture magazine. In the 1970s, he released the book The New West (1974), and a year later was included in the seminal exhibition “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape.” Adams has twice been the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and once the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Adams lives and works in Astoria, OR. Today, his works can be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
August 24, 2020
A small, quiet book by a great photographer. I recommend you read it outdoors. Under the shade of a giant oak perhaps. In it you might find something you needed to hear again. You were looking for that re-assurance and didn't even know it. A re-affirmation of what you've always believed to be the most important truth about art but were maybe too embarrassed to admit that it could be expressed so simply: Art helps us live. Adams focuses on photography but I was able to apply what he said to the writing of fiction and to all art, indeed, to all creative endeavor. The book contains a dozen or so photographs that illustrate Adams' words - just enough examples of photographs (not his own) that point to a truth beyond their subject - not with allegory or symbol but by opening our vision, clarifying our perception, sometimes in a sudden flash of illumination. There is not much "how" in this book (nothing about what lens to use) but you will be a better photographer, a better artist, after reading this book. The book will give you the humble courage and conviction to create the kind of beauty only you can create.
August 8, 2018
Ho trovato molti spunti di riflessione interessanti e mai banali. Tolgo una stella perché talvolta mi ha dato un'impressione un pochino "moraleggiante".
March 25, 2021
This book was brought to my attention in About This Life, where Barry Lopez calls it "one of the clearest statements of artistic responsibility ever written by a photographer."
Intrigued by that statement and the title, Essays in Defense of Traditional Values, I tracked down a copy at Bethel University's library.
Many of the essays originated as academic lectures to students, so I particularly appreciate that Adams says in his intro: "When readers learn that I was a teacher and then encounter references to literature and art, past and present, they ask whether I think an appreciation of art requires formal education. I do not.
..No one has to go to college to make or understand or enjoy art. Wonderful artists and critics - some of the best - have educated themselves."
It's a small book of eight essays that ask important questions and offer exploration and insight.
"Is it possible for art to be more than lies?"
"What is the artist trying to do? Does he do it? Was it worth doing?" Does it help us to "better endure or enjoy life?"
"..extreme lenses, and eccentric darkroom techniques reveal a struggle to substitute shock and technology for sight. How many photographers of importance, after all, have relied on long telephoto lenses? Instead their work is usually marked by an economy of means, an apparently everyday sort of relationship with their subject matter." (p. 30)
"Why are important areas of life getting past us? Why, for example, do we have so few pictures of family life in America?" (p. 85)
"Photography can always be new, because the surface of life keeps changing." (p. 84)
Intrigued by that statement and the title, Essays in Defense of Traditional Values, I tracked down a copy at Bethel University's library.
Many of the essays originated as academic lectures to students, so I particularly appreciate that Adams says in his intro: "When readers learn that I was a teacher and then encounter references to literature and art, past and present, they ask whether I think an appreciation of art requires formal education. I do not.
..No one has to go to college to make or understand or enjoy art. Wonderful artists and critics - some of the best - have educated themselves."
It's a small book of eight essays that ask important questions and offer exploration and insight.
"Is it possible for art to be more than lies?"
"What is the artist trying to do? Does he do it? Was it worth doing?" Does it help us to "better endure or enjoy life?"
"..extreme lenses, and eccentric darkroom techniques reveal a struggle to substitute shock and technology for sight. How many photographers of importance, after all, have relied on long telephoto lenses? Instead their work is usually marked by an economy of means, an apparently everyday sort of relationship with their subject matter." (p. 30)
"Why are important areas of life getting past us? Why, for example, do we have so few pictures of family life in America?" (p. 85)
"Photography can always be new, because the surface of life keeps changing." (p. 84)
August 30, 2024
I was looking for inspiration and didn’t find it here. Some things to think about, but mostly full of overthinking.
————
I found Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” commencement speech more useful.
Excerpt:
“When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing.
This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.
If you don’t know it’s impossible it’s easier to do.”
————
I found Neil Gaiman’s “Make Good Art” commencement speech more useful.
Excerpt:
“When you start out on a career in the arts you have no idea what you are doing.
This is great. People who know what they are doing know the rules, and know what is possible and impossible. You do not. And you should not. The rules on what is possible and impossible in the arts were made by people who had not tested the bounds of the possible by going beyond them. And you can.
If you don’t know it’s impossible it’s easier to do.”
August 31, 2017
Eccellente raccolta di riflessioni, che spiegano il senso del paesaggio per Adams. Il saggio che dà titolo al libro è imprescindibile.
October 29, 2022
These essays fluently articulate Robert Adams' traditional, classicist approach to art making. Photography exists to make intelligible what we already know. The proper goal of art is Beauty, and Beauty is "a synonym for the coherence and structure underlying life." A good picture, therefore, is a reflection of the timeless order of which we are part.
It should come as no surprise that producing real images is a craft with moral import.
"William Carlos Williams said that poets write for a single reason - to give witness to splendor (a word also used by Thomas Aquinas in defining the beautiful). It is a useful word, especially for the photographer, because it implies light - light of overwhelming intensity. The Form toward which art points is of an incontrovertible brilliance, but is also far too intense to examine directly. We are compelled to understand by its fragmentary reflection in the daily objects around us; art will never fully define light." (p. 25)The nemesis of classicism is romanticism, the infatuation with the formless, the nebulous and the crepuscular.
"I would trade all of Stieglitz's pictures of blurry night clouds for one of his sharply focused view of the sky in daylight, one of those in which he customarily nicked in some solidifying foliage from ground where we walk." (p. 93)Also inimical to Adam's artistic ethos is shallow aestheticism.
" ... style is never, in important art, important by itself." (p. 87)Against the strain of the odd angles and contribed post-processing of mass circulation imagery Adams places economy of means and the everyday sort of relationship between subject and artist that marks good photography.
It should come as no surprise that producing real images is a craft with moral import.
"First we have an obligation simply to be the citizens we want everyone to be – informed, engaged, reasonable, and compassionate. Then as artists we are called historically to a double mission, to instruct and delight, to tell the truth but also to find in it a basis for affirmation." (quoted from here)In a short piece about Frank Gohlke's pictures from the destruction left in the wake of a tornado that crossed Wichita Falls in 1979, Adams observes:
"Gohlke's pictures, although they too make clear the devastation, show order. His composition implies a belief in the endurance of shape; the pictures are metaphor, an assertion of meaning within the apocalypse (...) he would not, moral man that he is, have been able to keep at it if he had not realized that his pictures of the destruction would be, as much as carpentry or masonry, themselves acts of reconstruction. It is his vision of form that is his chief gift to his old neighbors, and to surivors generally." (p. 100)
from Summer Nights Walking, 1976-1982 (c) Robert Adams
October 22, 2017
BEAUTY IN PHOTOGRAPHY by Robert Adams is a collection of nine essays, including one that serves as the title for the book. These essays pose some good questions, such as this from the first chapter: “…is it possible for art to be more than lies?” (p.14) Whether your first response is “yes” or “no,” it is a pretty deep question on further reflection. This book is about a philosophy of photography and has nothing at all to do with making beautiful photographs. It’s a book to generate questions and encourage photographers to think deeply about the art of image making. So while the word “beauty” might get tossed around a bit, consider that much, maybe most, art has little to do with “pretty.” While Adams asserts that “the static visual arts are not well suited to the direct exploration of evil” (p. 69), he concedes that “…photography as art does address evil, but it does so broadly as it works to convince us of life’s value.” (p. 70) And for any photographer despairing that everything has already been done, Adams notes that “Photography can always be new, because the surface of life keeps changing. Yes, photography like all the arts will go in seasons, but it is not a fad anymore than is life itself.” (p. 84)
February 2, 2021
Robert Adams's collection of essays on art is a delightful, accessible read for anyone interested not only in photography but also in the place of art, including difficult art, in our world.
I read this for grad school (technically, I didn't have to finish it, but might as well!) and was surprised by how much I liked to read Adams's musings and reflections. I tend to have little patience for philosophical writing, but his style is accessible and illuminating. He frames his ideas with quotes from T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets, so I was immediately on board to hear his ideas. His descriptions of what defines "beauty", his determination of what makes for good criticism, and his examination of the place of art in confronting evil were the highlights for me. I generally agreed with many of his conclusions (or at least did not have enough of a strong opinion to not agree), so I would be interested in reading a different perspective from someone with similar expertise.
If you are interested in the philosophical underpinnings of art and beauty but only have enough time for bite-sized moments of deep-thinking, pick this collection up!
I read this for grad school (technically, I didn't have to finish it, but might as well!) and was surprised by how much I liked to read Adams's musings and reflections. I tend to have little patience for philosophical writing, but his style is accessible and illuminating. He frames his ideas with quotes from T.S. Eliot's The Four Quartets, so I was immediately on board to hear his ideas. His descriptions of what defines "beauty", his determination of what makes for good criticism, and his examination of the place of art in confronting evil were the highlights for me. I generally agreed with many of his conclusions (or at least did not have enough of a strong opinion to not agree), so I would be interested in reading a different perspective from someone with similar expertise.
If you are interested in the philosophical underpinnings of art and beauty but only have enough time for bite-sized moments of deep-thinking, pick this collection up!
February 19, 2022
This is a straightforward little book of essays that is both very accessible and profound. Robert Adams is a well-known photographer of the American West and was an exhibitor in the New Topographics show that influenced the course of contemporary landscape photography.
Speaking about beauty in art has become somewhat taboo, so it was refreshing to read a defence by an established artist. It is also helpful that Adams provides examples from his own work and the works of others to make his points -- it is clear that his idea of beauty is neither saccharine nor sentimental. Instead, he sees beauty in those works of art that reveal form, an order or coherence that underlies all things. I was concerned at first that 'order' or 'coherence' might be construed in an overly rigid, traditional way, but this was not the case: there is plenty of allowance for scope, diversity and 'newness.'
Of course, readers who do not share Adams' confidence in an underlying order of all things may not find his arguments as convincing. Nevertheless, they may still benefit from listening to a thoughtful discussion from someone who loves art and the world he portrays.
Speaking about beauty in art has become somewhat taboo, so it was refreshing to read a defence by an established artist. It is also helpful that Adams provides examples from his own work and the works of others to make his points -- it is clear that his idea of beauty is neither saccharine nor sentimental. Instead, he sees beauty in those works of art that reveal form, an order or coherence that underlies all things. I was concerned at first that 'order' or 'coherence' might be construed in an overly rigid, traditional way, but this was not the case: there is plenty of allowance for scope, diversity and 'newness.'
Of course, readers who do not share Adams' confidence in an underlying order of all things may not find his arguments as convincing. Nevertheless, they may still benefit from listening to a thoughtful discussion from someone who loves art and the world he portrays.
August 15, 2019
Robert Adams' Beauty in Photography is a well curated and personal overview of the uniquely collaborative nature of the camera and photographer. While you will certainly find a series of sparsely written, deeply felt essays in defence of traditional values, as its subtitle suggests, at its core, the book could be more easily understood as a heartfelt defence of the simple value of photography.
Beauty in Photography is the standout essay and deserves to be read by all photographers of all walks of life.
Overall, Adams' book can be considered a great companion piece to Susan Sontag's On Photography, John Berger's Ways of Seeing or Roland Barthes Camera Lucida.
October 24, 2019
Words and pictures communicate. The words may change from person to person, from edition to later edition. The meaning of pictures may also change according to context.
Great works of literature change from one reader to the next and maintain their greatness in the minds of serial readers who react to them with emotion and feeling.
Photos can be abstract or replete with reality, right side up or not but they relay something from the photographer to the viewer and, finally, must be gauged by what they let into those various minds.
Great works of literature change from one reader to the next and maintain their greatness in the minds of serial readers who react to them with emotion and feeling.
Photos can be abstract or replete with reality, right side up or not but they relay something from the photographer to the viewer and, finally, must be gauged by what they let into those various minds.
April 13, 2020
Given to me by a fellow artist, Robert Adams has become one of our favorite writers on photography. His insights give me a lot to consider without making me feel like I am overthinking what I am doing with my own work.
The is a collection of longer and short essays that speak much about the role of beauty (and what it is), truth (which is much of what beauty is), and those who succeed at it. He especially excels when he takes on the work of one photographer and what that person's work means to him.
The is a collection of longer and short essays that speak much about the role of beauty (and what it is), truth (which is much of what beauty is), and those who succeed at it. He especially excels when he takes on the work of one photographer and what that person's work means to him.
May 8, 2018
Robert Adams writing with a clarity only he can muster about photography and art. One question he asks is "what's new?" He answers, nothing is really new in art, that it is all inventive recapitulations of "truth." What is truth? Well truth is beauty, but Adams tells us that Keats knew not all truth was beautiful. Ultimately Adams reminds us that all photography is of nature. The nature of things, the actual wilderness, the ever-changing surface and deep seeded eternal of life.
February 5, 2021
While some statements Robert Adams made 30 years when the book was first published seem a bit outdated now, I find quotes after quotes that still ring true in the fast changing field of photography.
A great read, especially the first five essays, so beautifully written with a wisdom of this art only attainable from experience.
A great read, especially the first five essays, so beautifully written with a wisdom of this art only attainable from experience.
October 8, 2023
"The most expressive discoveries are made in old familiar subject matter...all that remains now is for us to create new illusions in the service of truth."
Robert Adams is a great photographer and now I know he is really good at writing too.
Robert Adams is a great photographer and now I know he is really good at writing too.
January 25, 2018
A clear series of essays which I found stimulating. This book made me keen to review the way I think about and take my photographs and the real purpose of them.
March 28, 2021
Must read
December 22, 2021
A must for everyone that finds landscapes interesting.
March 1, 2022
Robert Adams has such a way with words, they literally just carry you through the book. And his insights on photography are unmatched. Must read for any artist or photographer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 24, 2024
A great, compact book. Vital reading for anyone interested in photography.
December 28, 2025
A slow and reflective read that will give you food for thought
August 15, 2009
I picked up this book in a bargain bin, having never heard of Robert Adams before--I was simply doing a lot of reading about photography at the time. I had read Sontag's On Photography, and thought that what it actually missed was the experience of the artist--what the individual photographer, himself or herself was trying to achieve. I went first to an excellent anthology, Photography in Print. But Adams is an even better place to go, to hear the other side of the argument. He is, in fact, my favorite contemporary writer on art, as well as on landscape-and that's not even getting into his photography. Like all of the best books on art, now, sadly, out of print.
August 30, 2009
It was a true joy to be immersed in (or rather, seduced by) the thoughtful and poetic writing of Robert Adams, who has spent a lifetime's worth of passion and consideration examining the delicate dialogue between photography and beauty. Rather than putting forth a steely analysis of how we respond and why we respond to photographic imagery, Adams seems to invite us to the sofa by his fireplace where an organic conversation about photography can unfold without rush. Oddly, such time devoted to the topic never felt so decadent, nor so important.
Thanks sbd for the loan.
Thanks sbd for the loan.
May 27, 2008
The first part yes, The second part not so much.
September 9, 2010
Some interesting perspectives on photography and why people take photographs. It also gave me some things to consider for future projects.
May 19, 2012
A short book but well worth a read. Covers many basic questions of artmaking. Written in the guise of photography but applies equally to all forms of art.
January 14, 2013
Beautiful book, with excellent references.
September 29, 2013
A must read for any (landscape) photographer. It highlights with simplicity and candour the scope, value, and human relevance of this lifelong endeavour.
April 5, 2014
A beautiful little book of essays dealing with many of the issues around creating art of any kind, but particularly photography. Truly inspiring.
November 1, 2014
Even if you are not into photography specifically but are interested in art in general, this is a wonderful read. Can't recommend this enough!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews