Robert Adams, Robert Bechtle and Ewan Gibbs, at Timothy Taylor Gallery

A black and white photograph of a trailer home

'Untitled', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973.

(Image credit: Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York)

last updated 10 August 2022

This month London's Timothy Taylor Gallery (opens in new tab) presents three different visions of the American landscape, urban and rural.

The photographer Robert Adams has been documenting the urbanisation and suburbanisation of America for four decades. The works on show here are stark black and white images of the despoliation of Denver, Colorado, taken in the early seventies.

Born in 1932, five years before Adams, Robert Bechtle (opens in new tab)'s photo-realistic charcoal drawings of his home city of San Francisco are at once captured moments of urban emptiness and an exploration of the relationship between drawing and photography.

That relationship is addressed more explicitly by Ewan Gibbs (opens in new tab), a repeat offender at the Timothy Taylor Gallery, having showed there twice before since graduating from the Goldsmiths College of Art in 1996.

Gibbs is showing new drawings - fine pencil marks on graph paper - of monochromatic photographs of American cities. Inevitably details are lost from his source material but something significant is gained, a new way of talking about American iconography.

A black and white photograph of a bridge — 'Eden, Colorado', by Robert Adams, 1968.

A black and white photograph of a residential street in Colorado showing an old white car on a driveway — 'Colorado', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973.

A black and white photograph showing the back gardens and back of houses — 'Untitled', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973

Black and white photograph of a one storey house/ Bungalow — 'Colorado', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973.

Black and white photograph of a grass area behind some houses with a VW Beetle — 'Colorado', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973.

Black and white photograph of a house with snow on the grass at the front — 'Colorado', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973.

Black and white photograph showing the front of a house with a car on the drive, the drive and garden is covered in snow, and a small child is standing in the snow — 'Colorado', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973.

Black and white image of the porch of a house with a Childs trike and toys scattered — 'Colorado', by Robert Adams, ca. 1973.

A black and white photo of the front of a house in 1970 — 'Jefferson County, Colorado', by Robert Adams, 1970.

A black and white photograph of showing a house on a street — 'Jefferson County, Colorado', by Robert Adams, 1970.

A view of the installation in the gallery showing pictures on walls

Black and white images Left- 'Denver', Right- greyhound bus stop — 'Denver', 2011, and 'Oakland', 2011, both by Ewan Gibbs.

An image of 'Fort worth' and 'San francisco' — 'Fort Worth', 2011, and 'San Francisco', 2011, both by Ewan Gibbs.

Black and White image of 'New York' — 'New York', 2011, by Ewan Gibbs

Image showing the view of the installation — Installation view at Timothy Taylor gallery in London

Black and white photograph of a female crossing Connecticut street, with trees and building in the background — 'Crossing Connecticut Street', by Robert Bechtle, 2011.

Black and white image of a car parked outside a building on twentieth street at night — 'Night on Twentieth Street', by Robert Bechtle, 2011.

A view of twentieth street showing a few cars parked either side — 'Up Twentieth Street', by Robert Bechtle, 2011.

Black and white image of a car parked outside a house — 'Alameda Houses', by Robert Bechtle, 2011.

Black and white image of a person crossing Texas Street with a larger corner building in view — 'Crossing Texas Street', by Robert Bechtle, 2011.

Black and white image shows the front of a house with a garden fence — 'House on Marin Avenue', by Robert Bechtle, 2011.

ADDRESS

Timothy Taylor Gallery
15 Carlos Place
London W1

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS (opens in new tab)