From Jamie M. Allen’s article about Adam Ekberg for Exposure magazine [The Journal of the Society for Photographic Education]:
In all of his photography, Ekberg has a particular ability to capture the physical and sensual natures of light, as seen, for example, in “Arrangement #1,” 2009 (Figure 7). We don’t know how this arrangement came into being, how long it will last, or if one element will win out over another. The flashlights illuminate the room and activate the space, but what happens if one battery dies first? Their unblinking luminance supplies physical evidence of the fact that they are not the only things present in the room, as lifeless chairs are turned into ominous shadows and decay becomes evident all around. Yet it is also their light that generates a sense of eerie abandonment, as there is a presence missing from view. Where is the individual who set up the scene, carefully placing the chairs, precisely pointing the beams, setting up the camera, directing the view? Their light circles us back to Ekberg, who has created the scene, leading us down this path and purposefully removing his own physical presence from it. In this way, Ekberg as omnipresent creator is both present and absent from the scene.