David Emitt Adams is a contemporary photographic artist known for his innovative photo-sculptures and installations. His artwork addresses the human influence within the natural world, creation and consumption of energy, construction and destruction of land, as well as time and photography itself.

Adams’ photographs have been exhibited nationally and internationally including museum exhibitions at Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Phoenix Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, among others. He is a recipient of the Arizona Commission on the Arts Research and Development Grant, the Clarence John Laughlin Award, and the Puffin Foundation Grant. His work is in the permanent collection of the Center for Creative Photography, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Museum of Photographic Arts San Diego, Ogden Museum of Southern Art, George Eastman Museum, and the Worcester Art Museum as well as numerous private collections. Adams obtained his Bachelor of Fine Art from Bowling Green State University and a Master of Fine Art from Arizona State University.

CV

Download CV

Education:

M.F.A Arizona State University
B.F.A. Bowling Green State University

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2024
Reshaping the Earth: Energy and Environment: with Jamie Stillings, PhotoEye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
2019
POWER, Candela Books+Gallery, Richmond, VA
2018
POWER, Southern Utah Museum of Art, Cedar City, UT
POWER, Bellocq Gallery, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA
2017
POWER, Roswell Museum of Art, Roswell, NM
POWER, New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA
Conversations with History, Stark Gallery, Phoenix, AZ
2014
Conversations with History, The Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
2013
Conversations with History, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
2012
Conversations with History, MFA Thesis Exhibition, Northlight Gallery, Tempe, AZ

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2024
New Terrain: 21st-Century Landscape Photography, Worcester Art Museum, MA
2023
Photography 1940- Present, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA.
Along the Shore, Form and Concept, Santa Fe, NM
2022
Vital Signs, Tempe Center for the Arts, Phoenix, AZ
2021
Landscapes of Extraction, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Ansel Adams in Our Time, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
2020
Ansel Adams in Our Time, Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Bentonville, AR
Permanent Collection Exhibition, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA
2019
Old School New Rules, The Sheldon Art Galleries, St. Louis, MO
Time Lapse: Contemporary Analog Photography, Shelburne Museum, Shelburne, VT
2018
Ansel Adams in Our Time, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA
New Southern Photography, Ogden Museum, New Orleans, LA
From Ansel Adams to Infinity, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA
Contemporary Eye: Historic Photographic Processes Revisited, University of Akron, Akron, OH
The Genesis of Photography and the Contemporary Eye, Decretive Arts Center, Lancaster, OH
2017
Contemporary Forum Artists Grant Winners Exhibition, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
Chiang Mai Photo Festival, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
AIPAD, Etherton Gallery, New York, NY
2016
Photography in America’s National Parks, George Eastman House, Rochester, NY
Energy: Made in Form San Diego State University, San Diego, CA
Found, Candela Gallery, Richmond, VA
Louis Carlos Bernal Gallery, Tucson, AZ
This is a photograph, Penland Gallery, Penland, NC
2015
Arizona Biennial, Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
One of a Kind: Unique Photographic Objects, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Five Alchemist: Contemporary Photographer Explore 19th-Century Techniques, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Alchemical Ensemble, New Visions in Historic Photographic Processes, Columbia College, MO
Diffusion Annual, The Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, CO
PHOTOGRAPH, David Emitt Adams and Claire A. Warden, Kruglak Gallery, Oceanside, CA
Vibrant Matters, Instinct Art Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
2014
Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, MA
Colorado Photographic Arts Center, Denver, CO
Land Exposures, Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ
100 Photographs, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
Look Again, Ashville Area Arts Council Gallery (invitational) Ashville, NC
Flash Forward, Magenta Foundation, 2 Battery Wharf, Boston, MA
Unbound3, Candela Gallery (invitational), Richmond, VA
Double Back: Photographic Reflexivity (invitational), University of Maryland, Maryland, MD
Shifts, Roland Dille Center for the Arts Gallery,(two person) Mankato, MN

Awards/Honors:

2020
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Photographic Light Boxes
2016
Clarence John Laughlin Award, New Orleans Photo Alliance
Phoenix Art Museum Contemporary Forum Artists Grant
Puffin Foundation Artist Grant
2015
Arizona Commission on the Arts Research and Development Grant
Artnet’s Must-See Booths at AIPAD
Fish/Pearce Award, Print Center Philadelphia

Lectures

2024
Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
Penland School of Craft, Penland, NC
2022
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI
2020
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA
2018
Southern Utah Museum of Art, UT
Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA
Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
2017
Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM
New Orleans Photo Alliance, New Orleans, LA
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE
Metropolitan Community College, Omaha, NE
Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH
Oklahoma Arts Institute, Quartz Mountain, OK
Alternative Photographic International Symposium, Santa Fe, NM
2016
Oklahoma Arts Institute, Quartz Mountain, OK
2015
MiraCosta College, San Diego, CA
Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, KS
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO
The University of Kansas, Laurence, KS
Wichita State University, Wichita, KS
2014
Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ
2013
Medium Festival of Photography, San Diego, CA
Society for Photographic Education, National Conference, Chicago, IL
Society for Photographic Education, Southeast, Charlotte, NC
University of North Texas, Denton, TX
2012
f295 Symposium, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, PA
2011
Exploring the Roots of Photography Exhibition, Art Intersection, Gilbert, AZ
Tintype Redux, Photo Alliance, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA

Publications:

2024
Analog Forever Magazine
2023
Wild Visions: Wilderness as Image and Idea, Yale Press
2020
Jill Enfield’s A Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes, Second Edition
2018
FOMU Magazine, Fotomuseum Antwerp, Belgium
New Southern Photography by Richard McCabe
2017
Photographic Possibilities, Fourth Edition, by Robert Hirsch
Harper’s Magazine
2015
The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes, Third Edition, by Christopher James
Crafting Hand Made Images, First Edition, by Brady Wilks
2013
Black and White Photography UK, Issue NO.152
A Guide to Photographic Alternative Processes: Popular Historical and Contemporary Techniques, Focal Press

Collections:

Worcester Art Museum
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
Santa Barbara Museum of Art
Center for Creative Photography
George Eastman Museum
San Diego Museum of Art
Phoenix Airport Museum
Candela Books+Gallery
Northlight Gallery, Tempe, Arizona
Numerous private collections

Gallery Representation:

Etherton Gallery, Tucson, AZ
PhotoEye Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

SELECT PRESS

Not a mere retrospective, [Ansel Adams in Our Time] it also includes about 80 images by 23 contemporary photographers that the curator, Karen Haas, sees as a modern lens on Adams. Although the connections are occasionally a bit tenuous, their addition highlights how Adams, who carried the 19th century’s hymn to America into the 20th century, has remained an inescapable force.

The photographers on view who adapt Adams’s images simultaneously make radical changes and commentaries. Their inclusion points out major shifts in the way both landscape photography and landscape itself are now regarded.

METRO ART LOS ANGELES | The American Oil Industry Photographed on Discarded Oil Drum Lids

This Earth Day — which is Saturday — Metro Art reflects on the photographs of artist David Emitt Adams that is part of the Metro Art Photo Lightbox Series, a temporary exhibition program.

A series of large-scale photographs printed on discarded 55- gallon oil drum lids contemplates the social, political and environmental landscape of the American oil industry.

CATALYST INTERVIEWS | David Emitt Adams

As an educator, [Adams] is spending time teaching the wet plate collodion process to young minds, among other things. It’s his forte, and the process used to create the aforementioned bodies of work that first got my attention.

JAVA MAGAZINE | PHOTO DUO: DAVID EMITT ADAMS AND CLAIRE A. WARDEN

The door opens and David Emitt Adams leads me into a room full of equipment and tools stacked from floor to ceiling. The scene is frenetic with repairmen all around. We make it out of the space and I’m eventually led into a living room. There we encounter Claire A. Warden, Adams’ wife of three and a half years. She graciously offers me tea, and we chat about their lives as thriving creatives in Phoenix.

PORTLAND ART MUSEUM | Daily Art Moment: David Emitt Adams

“As long as people have been in the American West, they have found its barren desert landscapes to be ideal for dumping detritus. Today, the notion of land untouched by humans is so foreign it might as well be make-believe.” — David Emitt Adams