A retrospective exhibit of more than 200 black-and-white photographs spanning 45 years of Robert Adams’ career, called “The Place We Live,” is on display at the Denver Art Museum through Jan. 2, the first United States venue for the show.

This important American photographer, who lived and taught in Colorado for nearly 30 years, has an ongoing love/hate relationship with the contemporary Western landscape.

His subtle, perfectly composed gelatin silver prints are so finely detailed that the museum supplies magnifiers for patrons to study them closely, although I’m not convinced they are needed.

These photos are so precisely detailed that every object is clear, sometimes with dramatic lighting, sometimes with that washed-out look a dusty road has at high noon.

Prints are grouped by location and vary from his quiet “Listening to the River” series to angry commentary about clear cutting lumber in Oregon, his home since 1997. His images of old growth stumps and depleted forests make a viewer very sad.

Small towns with filling station, grain elevator, modest home or trailer park are simple statements of “This is what I see,” and contrast greatly with the dramatic, sometimes gaudy Western landscapes that show up on calendars and post cards.

The whole gallery seems calm and quiet. Allow time to contemplate what he has to say. There’s a clear message.

While some images were taken in California and Oregon, many reflect his years in Colorado, where he taught English at Colorado College and became disturbed by the rapid transformation of Colorado Springs and the Denver area.

“The pictures record what we purchased, what we paid and what we could not buy,” Adams wrote. “They document a separation from ourselves, and in turn from the natural world that we professed to love.”

Yale University’s purchase of more than 1,000 images, his life’s work, reinforces the regard he has found in the art world. Yale has assembled this collection of 244 prints and published several books, available in the museum shop.

Related programming includes a four-week course, “Looking at Photography” Oct. 9-30 with DAM curator of Photography Eric Paddock, on Sundays from 1 to 2:30 p.m. ($75). Reservations www.denverartmuseum.org/adult programs. Also:“ Takes on the Changing West” will present regional authors, poets, thinkers on Thursdays, Oct. 6-20.

The exhibit is included in museum admission. www.denverartmuseum.org.