Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Nebraska State Highway 2, Box Butte County, Nebraska

Preview image of work. gelatin silver print, Nebraska State Highway 2, Box Butte County, Nebraska 9228

1982.2

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Nebraska State Highway 2, Box Butte County, Nebraska

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Artist

Robert Hickman Adams (Orange, New Jersey , 5/8/1937 – )

Title

Nebraska State Highway 2, Box Butte County, Nebraska

Creation Date

1978

Century

20th century

Dimensions

10 7/8 in. x 8 7/8 in. (27.6 cm. x 22.6 cm.)

Classification

Photographs

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

gelatin silver print

Credit Line

Museum Purchase

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

1982.2

This photograph is part of Adams’s collection From The Missouri West, a collection of forty-seven black and white landscape photographs that explores the interaction between humans and the American landscape. For this project, Adams visited places where his grandfather once took pictures. “Because I had lost my way in the suburbs,” he later wrote, “I decided to try to rediscover some of the landforms that had impressed our forebears.” Adams discovered a landscape different from what his ancestors observed. In this image wilderness seems to disappear as the vast and endless highway vanishes into the distance, swept by wind-blown leaves. This representation of human-made infrastructure overtaking the natural world is further emphasized by the polluted sky and neglected trees. The black and white hues of this desolate composition evoke an added sense of nostalgia.