Death Of A Valley

Now On View @ the Booth Museum

Photography by: Dorothea Lange & Pirkle Jones

Featuring photographs by two of the 20th century’s most important photographers, Death of a Valley is a nearly 70-year-old story full of contemporary issues such as water policy, private property rights, land conservation and local governance vs. state and federal jurisdiction.

Dorothea Lange is famous for her social realist images, including the iconic Migrant Mother which many consider a defining image of the Dustbowl and Great Depression era of the 1930s. In 1956 she convinced Life magazine to commission a photo essay documenting the last year of the Berryessa Valley, including the town of Monticello, roughly 80 miles northeast of San Francisco. The entire area was due to be submerged with the opening of the Monticello Dam and the creation of Lake Berryessa to provide water for irrigation and recreational purposes.

Lange then invited Ansel Adams protege Pirkle Jones to collaborate on the project. “The Berryessa Project was one of the most meaningful photographic experiences of my professional life. When Dorothea Lange, a friend, and colleague, invited me to collaborate on this project with her in 1956, I looked forward to the experience.” –Photographer Pirkle Jones.

Click here to see the exhibition page on the Lumiere website.
Click here to see the exhibition page on the Booth Western Art Museum’s website.

The essay proved unsettling for Life, and they declined to publish it. In 1960, the photographic journal of the Aperture Foundation published thirty of the photos as an essay entitled “Death of a Valley.” These photographs were then exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and, later, at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Booth Museum exhibition, organized with Lumière of Atlanta, the Special Collections and Archives Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Robert Yellowlees Special Collection. It includes over 80 images. It runs until June 9, 2024.

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