Gallery of Fine Art Photography - Atlanta GA

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Death Of A Valley

Previous Exhibition @ the Booth Museum

Photography by: Dorothea Lange & Pirkle Jones

Featured 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.

Albert McKenzie; Inside Cook, McKenzie & Son Store, 1956 • photograph by Dorothea Lange

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 included over 80 images. It ran from November 18, 2023 until June 9, 2024.

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2 years ago
Lumiere

Celebrating the work of Alexander Rodchenko born on this day in 1891. Rodchenko was a Russian artist, sculptor, photographer and graphic designer. He was one of the founders of constructivism and Russian design. Rodchenko was one of the most versatile Constructivist and Productivist artists to emerge after the Russian Revolution. He worked as a painter and graphic designer before turning to photomontage and photography. His photography was socially engaged, formally innovative, and opposed to a painterly aesthetic. Concerned with the need for analytical-documentary photo series, he often shot his subjects from odd angles—usually high above or below—to shock the viewer and to postpone recognition. He wrote: “One has to take several different shots of a subject, from different points of view and in different situations, as if one examined it in the round rather than looked through the same key-hole a#lumieregallery&#AlexanderRodchenkol#rodchenkon#sovietphotographyhenko
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2 years ago
Lumiere

Celebrating the work of Robert Glenn Ketchum on his 75th birthday. Ketchum's imagery and books have helped to define contemporary color photography while at the same time addressing critical national environmental issues. This has made him one of the most successful artist/activists in American history. His work in Alaska illustrate this point, first in the Tongass Rain Forest, where his images were credited with helping to pass the Tongass Timber Reform Bill of 1990. One of his current efforts is in Southwest Alaska, aimed to protect the largest wild salmon habitats from the ill-advised Pebble Mine. Wishing you many more years to continue your work!!

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2 years ago
Lumiere

Sharing some beautiful Georgia landscapes by Diane Kirkland on this pretty fall day. #lumieregallery #dianekirkland ... See MoreSee Less

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