shashasha

This beautiful edition of “Eden” brings back one of the earliest works by Robert Adams, who has been photographing the landscapes of the American West for more than sixty years. Created in the fall of 1968, Adams, still working as an English teacher, photographed a nondescript area, devoid of any landmarks except for a truck stop off the interstate, near the Colorado town of Eden. Adams’ series contrasts the frontier-era collective memory of a paradise to be found in the West with the bleak (but beautiful) landscapes of reality.

“Except for casual greetings from the waitresses in the cafe, Eden is a palce without human gentleness. The air is weighted by the sound of traffic.
There is, however. another aspect to this spot, one that can be set forth only in riddles. Stuart Davis, when he described his goal as an artist, talked of it: ‘I am not looking for something newer or greater,’ he said. ‘Everything new and great already exists—has always existed. We need to make our connection with it.”
― from Robert Adam’s foreword