The Place We Live

“Are there affirmable days or places in our deteriorating world? Are there scenes in life, right now, for which we might conceivably be thankful? Is there a basis for joy or serenity, even if felt only occasionally? Are there grounds now and then for an unironic smile?” Robert Adams

The Place We Live traces Adams’ deep engagement with the geography of the American West, weaving together various aspects of over four decades of work into a cohesive, epic narrative of the American experience. Taken as a whole, this publication elucidates the photographer’s civic goals: to consider the privilege of the place we were given and the obligations of citizenship. Printed with an unprecedented fidelity to the photographer’s original prints, volumes one and two reflect Adams’ exacting, compelling sequence of nearly four hundred plates and bring together texts written by the photographer to accompany his photographic projects. Volume three offers a detailed chronology of Adams’ life, an illustrated bibliography of his monographs, selections from his personal archive, and a series of critical essays on hiswork by Joshua Chuang, Tod Papageorge, Jock Reynolds and John Szarkowski.