Adam Powers’ understated photographs draw out beauty from the forgotten corners of urban and commercial landscapes.
I SEEK TO UNDERMINE the passing by of common areas as dull or mundane, by capturing them as deserving of the same careful observation and glamor as the majestic waterfall and astral view of the galaxy. In everything, there is a conceivable connection to the quantum and the cosmological, where the sublime and the hilarious are always a possibility. In arresting time and abstracting these spaces, I try to find greater access to this conceivable connection. I call this series ‘Relative’ because everything is related for the varying subjective perspectives consuming this work.
When I use the word mundane, I do so begrudgingly. I focus on the quotidian, the everyday and overlooked corners of the public realm, and I do so because I find these places to be anything but mundane. I believe it’s a lazy mind that can’t look beyond the obvious layers of the ordinary and into the complex matrices of narrative that are woven into the foundation of everything.
That’s not to imply that I see the world in the grand wonder of that perspective; I gloss over much of my reality like a horse in blinders. But, occasionally, when I hold my camera, I remember how I wish I always saw the world.
Adam Powers
Currently residing in Portland, ME, Adam Powers is a photographer, recently awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Maine College of Art and Design. Thematic and conceptual explorations can be seen in a series of abandoned shopping carts and retail dumpsters that highlight the subjectivity of beauty and the fragile illusion of stability in our built environment. Predominantly exploring commercial and urban locations, Adam captures nuanced architectural environments in a style of street photography. AdamCPowers.com Instagram – @adam.c.p_