Denver Art Museum’s New Photography Exhibit, Personal Geographies, Invites Us to Slow Down

With the ever-increasing pace of modern life and contemporary culture, it is all too easy to overlook the smaller, quieter places in our world. But in the Denver Art Museum’s upcoming photography exhibit Personal Geographies, two contemporary photographers show the importance of slowing down through works that illustrate humanity in rural landscapes.

On view from Sunday, July 30, to February 11, 2024, Personal Geographies presents 32 images by Colorado photographer Trent Davis Bailey alongside nineteen recently acquired photos by Iñupiaq photographer Brian Adams. These two independent artists have deep ties to their heritage, and they utilize their creative practices to capture the environments where they and their relatives are from, as well as to honor the genuine human experiences of the people who live there today.
Brian Adams is based in Anchorage, Alaska, and travels extensively throughout the state and other circumpolar regions in order to share Inuit life, document native villages and capture the myriad implications of climate change on these sensitive landscapes. This ongoing work makes up his most recent series and book, I AM INUIT, from which several captivating images were borrowed for Personal Geographies. Adams is the co-founder of INDIGENOUS PHOTOGRAPH and The 400 Years Project, extensive photo collectives that seek to advocate for and elevate the voices of Indigenous photographers and storytellers.

“What influences my work the most in Alaska is the people and their connection to the land,” says Adams. “My photography is focused on environmental portraits. When I am making a portrait outdoors, I feel like I have two subjects I am collaborating with: the human in the frame and Alaska, which is its own presence.” Meanwhile, Trent Davis Bailey, who lives in Evergreen, spent many years visiting and revisiting the North Fork Valley in western Colorado after vivid childhood memories of his extended family led him to return with camera in hand. Over time, what started as a simple exploration of place turned into a fulfilling reunion with his relatives and an intimate connection to the community, which resulted in a richly emotive photographic series titled The North Fork. Many of the photographs from that series will be displayed in Personal Geographies; they'll soon be published as a book along with two essays and a poem.

“I find the interconnectedness of Colorado’s diverse microclimates, waterways, people and animals endlessly fascinating,” says Bailey. “When I take pictures, I seek intimacy and find meaning in human connection. Even if there isn’t a person in the picture, my perception of a place is influenced by human activity.”

Indeed, this relationship between the magnificence of landscape and the human-sized moments within it is a powerful theme seen in both Adams and Bailey’s photography. However, it’s compelling to note how their respective bodies of work have evolved synchronously in two vastly different parts of the country. These two artists are entirely original and distinctive, and Personal Geographies allows us to discover the unique approaches that they each take in order to convey their shared appreciation for nature and humanity.
“Because of its descriptive power, photography is very good at witnessing things in the world,” says DAM curator of photography Eric Paddock, who conceived and curated this exhibit in collaboration with curatorial associate Kimberly Roberts. “There’s this thread of photography — and I think it’s manifest in the exhibit here — where the photographer almost disappears, and the photographs just give us the opportunity to look into the world, or out at the world, and to see things that we wouldn't ordinarily see."

“I think in the modern world, when we are all more busy than we’d like to be…sometimes you miss those little things that hold a lot of beauty in life,” adds Roberts. “And I think there's a lot of moments in both Trent’s work and Brian’s work that are the product of that — just kind of a reminder not to miss those little things, even if it’s just capturing that shadow, because that’s where a lot of wonderful things in life lie.

“No matter where you are in the world, if you’re human, there’s certain things that we all do," she continues. “If you see laundry hanging on a line, you know you’ve got a version of that. I think that relatability, no matter where you are, is important.”
From appreciating an authentic and intimate view into someone’s life to considering the big picture of climate change in rural populations, in many ways, Personal Geographies asks us to look at, and pay attention to, things normally unseen.

“In a broad sense, these pictures invite us to examine our prevailing cultural values, and whether you agree with what the pictures say or not, I think that’s important to stop and think about,” Paddock concludes. “It’s important to slow down and look. That’s one of the things that I admire about these pictures, and I think that’s one of the things that museums are for.”

Personal Geographies will be on view in the Denver Art Museum’s photography galleries, located on the sixth level of the Martin Building, from July 30, 2023, to February 11, 2024. This exhibit is included with general admission; visit the DAM's website for more information.