82. Coos County, Oregon. Occasionally a tree will grow on top of an early stump. Here the second tree has itself been cut. 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: 20 x 25 inches

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

Object number2006.026.082

Curatorial DepartmentModern & Contemporary Art

_Place of OriginUnited States

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11. Tree lines at the edge of crop land, the Coquille River valley, Coos County, Oregon. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.011

12. Tree lines at the edge of crop land, the Coquille River valley, Coos County, Oregon. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.012

13. Tree lines at the edge of crop land, the Coquille River valley, Coos County, Oregon. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.013

14. Tree lines at the edge of crop land, the Coquille River valley, Coos County, Oregon. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.014

93. Curry County, Oregon. . . . the poor joiner, working at his wood, Knew not the tree from which the planks were taken, Knew not the glade from which the trunk was brought, Knew not the soil in which the roots were fast, Nor by what centuries of gales the boughs were shaken, But holds them all beneath his hands at last V. Sackville-West How much more difficult it is to imagine the origin of a sheet of chip board. As John Hay has written, we are “destroyers who are incapable of identifying our victims.”From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.093

51. An eroding clearcut, Pacific County, Washington. Erosion is an inevitable consequence of clearcutting. No people in history have clearcut without damaging the soil. If one turns a globe—China, India, the Near East, Europe, the eastern seaboard reminded that some degree of long-term deforestation has been the rule with clearcutting, and that this in turn has resulted in the diminishment of whole societies. Significantly, China has recently “stopped clearcutting native forests” and has “subsidized retraining of hundreds of thousands of loggers.” (The Oregonian, January 25, 2004) From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.051

53. An eroding clearcut, Pacific County, Washington. Erosion is an inevitable consequence of clearcutting. No people in history have clearcut without damaging the soil. If one turns a globe—China, India, the Near East, Europe, the eastern seaboard reminded that some degree of long-term deforestation has been the rule with clearcutting, and that this in turn has resulted in the diminishment of whole societies. Significantly, China has recently “stopped clearcutting native forests” and has “subsidized retraining of hundreds of thousands of loggers.” (The Oregonian, January 25, 2004) From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.053

52. An eroding clearcut, Pacific County, Washington. Erosion is an inevitable consequence of clearcutting. No people in history have clearcut without damaging the soil. If one turns a globe—China, India, the Near East, Europe, the eastern seaboard reminded that some degree of long-term deforestation has been the rule with clearcutting, and that this in turn has resulted in the diminishment of whole societies. Significantly, China has recently “stopped clearcutting native forests” and has “subsidized retraining of hundreds of thousands of loggers.” (The Oregonian, January 25, 2004) From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.052

101. Kerstin, next to an old-growth stump, Coos County, Oregon. It will be easier to think well of ourselves when evidence of the original forest is completely gone. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.101

102. Kerstin, next to an old-growth stump, Coos County, Oregon. It will be easier to think well of ourselves when evidence of the original forest is completely gone. From Turning Back, A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration

Robert Adams

1999–2003

Object number: 2006.026.102

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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