What do you see?

Photograph Looking Up at Wires of the Boulder Dam Power Units, originally uploaded by The U.S. National Archives taken by Ansel Adams for the Department of the Interior in 1941 

When I think of Ansel Adams I think of Yosemite first and foremost. Then I think of his other works at the National Parks such as Yellowstone, Carlsbad Caverns (I have a print of one of those shots in my cubical), and in the Southwestern Indian Country.

I have to admit that I was startled when I saw this picture was an Adams.

Looking at it and especially when it was taken in 1941 you start to appreciate the fact that projects like the Boulder Dam (Now Hoover Dam) were changing the face of the West. Adams realized this and took pictures of that change.

It challenges me as a photographer to take the time to look at how the world is changing today instead of always focusing on what remains of the past. Documenting change as it happens so that in the future we remember both what was and how it became what it is today.