99. Floras Creek, Curry County, Oregon. The Oregon Department of Forestry proposes a “compromise” by which clearcutting would be done less often on state-owned land. It is a proposal that fails to acknowledge the central contention of many of the industry’s critics, that forests are sacred and must never be totally cut lest they be permanently destroyed. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Artist Robert Adams (American, born 1937)

Date1999–2003

Period20th-21st century

MediumGelatin silver print on paper

DimensionsMat Size: 14 x 18 inches

Credit LinePurchase with funds provided by Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr.

Object number2006.026.099

Curatorial DepartmentModern & Contemporary Art

_Place of OriginUnited States

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98. Floras Creek, Curry County, Oregon. The Oregon Department of Forestry proposes a “compromise” by which clearcutting would be done less often on state-owned land. It is a proposal that fails to acknowledge the central contention of many of the industry’s critics, that forests are sacred and must never be totally cut lest they be permanently destroyed. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.098

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59. Clatsop County, Oregon. To be denied the original forest that stood here is to be orphaned, as children whose parents died in a war. In this situation we can never take comfort from the whole shape of the natural lives that bore us. John Szarkowski has written about how Eugene Atget’s photographs of old trees in France “describe the particular ways that trees articulate their forms, effloresce, bear fruit, grip the earth, claim space and light, and fail.” That testimony of completeness is destroyed by clearcutting, and with it an encouragement to wisdom and peace. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.059

60. Clatsop County, Oregon. To be denied the original forest that stood here is to be orphaned, as children whose parents died in a war. In this situation we can never take comfort from the whole shape of the natural lives that bore us. John Szarkowski has written about how Eugene Atget’s photographs of old trees in France “describe the particular ways that trees articulate their forms, effloresce, bear fruit, grip the earth, claim space and light, and fail.” That testimony of completeness is destroyed by clearcutting, and with it an encouragement to wisdom and peace. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.060

These critics don’t write enough about women artists

Guerrilla Girls

1985

Object number: 2009.044.04

90. Clatsop County, Oregon. Oregon’s public schools are funded in part by taxes linked to the short-term profits of industrial forestry. It is thus argued that clearcutting is done for the benefit of children. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.090

91. Clatsop County, Oregon. Oregon’s public schools are funded in part by taxes linked to the short-term profits of industrial forestry. It is thus argued that clearcutting is done for the benefit of children. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.091

92. Clatsop County, Oregon. Oregon’s public schools are funded in part by taxes linked to the short-term profits of industrial forestry. It is thus argued that clearcutting is done for the benefit of children. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.092

85. A clearcut as seen from within the edge of a “beauty screen,” Clatsop County, Oregon. Timber companies now leave thin strips of woodland along public roads to mask clearcuts. When these deceptions cannot obscure the facts, corporations sometimes employ landscape architects to design clearcuts so that they will mimic the appearance of naturally open areas like meadows and rock slides. To further disguise their work, the forest products industry generates voluminous propaganda. Not many wars, even, have been justified by so much lying. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.085

86. A clearcut as seen from within the edge of a “beauty screen,” Clatsop County, Oregon. Timber companies now leave thin strips of woodland along public roads to mask clearcuts. When these deceptions cannot obscure the facts, corporations sometimes employ landscape architects to design clearcuts so that they will mimic the appearance of naturally open areas like meadows and rock slides. To further disguise their work, the forest products industry generates voluminous propaganda. Not many wars, even, have been justified by so much lying. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.086

10. Pioneer cemetery, Bandon, Oregon. Near the cemetery there is a small log-sorting yard, the ghost of a former industry. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.010

43. At the edge of a clearcut, Warrenton, Clatsop County, Oregon. Trees taken near the Coast Highway, as here, are often not replanted because the acreage is too valuable for other kinds of development. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.043

44. At the edge of a clearcut, Warrenton, Clatsop County, Oregon. Trees taken near the Coast Highway, as here, are often not replanted because the acreage is too valuable for other kinds of development. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.044