CARTERSVILLE, GA.- 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 THE 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 Berryessa Lake, 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.
As Valley residents who had long opposed the dam were being forced out of their ancestral homes, Lange and Jones spent the year photographing throughout the Valley. Memorable scenes included poignant events such as the town’s last Memorial Day, the final cattle round-up and the last harvesting of crops across the fertile valley. Most striking are the images of graves being dug up so bodies could be relocated, and only empty holes remaining. The photographers were also there when heavy machinery and government workers arrived to strip the valley of buildings, landmarks and vegetation. The latest images show the valley filling with water.
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, Oakland Museum and later at the Art Institute of Chicago. Since then, the project has been largely forgotten. Until now! The Booth Museum exhibition, organized with Lumière of Atlanta; the Special Collections and Archives at the University of California, Santa Cruz; and the Robert Yellowlees Special Collection, will include over 80 images, most having never been exhibited before.
The exhibition, currently on view will have a member opening on Saturday, November 18, with gallery walks, a reception and two guest speakers: Pirkle Jones’ archivist, Jennifer McFarland, and Jessica Pigza, Associate Director of the Arts Library Special Collections at Yale University. They will discuss the making and legacy of Death of a Valley. On Thursday, March 24, 2024, the Booth will present a public program dedicated to Dorothea Lange, featuring Lange’s goddaughter, Elizabeth Partridge, and granddaughter, Dyanna Taylor. These women are authors of the book and PBS film biography “Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning.”
Background: The damming of Putah Creek, at a point ironically called Devil’s Gate, was first proposed in 1907. For the next five decades the residents fought valiantly against plans to build the dam that would turn their valley into a lake. Government officials in neighboring counties and at the state and federal level insisted the dam was necessary to provide water to the rapidly growing state of California. Proponents even declared the water was necessary for national defense, supplying Mare Island Naval Yard, Benicia Arsenal, and Travis Air Force Base in addition to much of Solano County.
Napa County lost one-eighth of its farmland beneath the lake. Annual agricultural production on those acres totaled well over $1 million way back in 1947. After the dam opened in 1957, an article in the San Francisco Examiner declared Lake Berryessa “the vacation home of thousands of sportsmen.” Some 60,000 people visited the lake that summer, and “even larger crowds are expected next season.” Progress had indeed been achieved by some measures, but the cost was high for those displaced. An article in the Alta Journal, (A literary journal celebrating the culture, personalities, and history of California and the West) included a quote from a fourth-generation rancher in the valley who saw his family uprooted. “You just didn’t think they’d take all that away. But they sure as hell did… It still bothers me… I mean, we were mostly all related, cousins and uncles and aunts, and everybody was just kind of on their own. Some of them I never saw again.”
Booth Western Art Museum
Dorothea Lange and Pirkle Jones: Death of a Valley
November 11th, 2023 - June 9th, 2024
