This volume commemorates Robert Adams' receipt of the Hasselblad Foundation International Award in Photography for 2009. Described by the Swedish foundation as "one of the most important and influential photographers of the last 40 years," Adams joins a very distinguished line of contemporary photographers who have won the award, such as Graciela Iturbide (2008) and Nan Goldin (2007). The Foundation singled out Adams' ability to consolidate the medium's history: "as photography has altered and fragmented, he has refined and reaffirmed its inherent language, adapting the legacies of nineteenth-century and modernist photography to his own very singular purpose. Precise and undramatic, Adams' accumulative vision of theWest now stands as a formidable document, reflecting broader, global concerns about the environment,while consistently recognizing signs of human aspiration and elements of hope, across a particular changing landscape."