ROBERT DAWSON
About the Photographer
Robert Dawson has long been interested in how photography can be used to understand our relationship with the environment. He is also interested in photography’s ability to shape public awareness and understanding of the place we call home.
Mr. Dawson's photographs have been recognized by a Visual Artists Fellowship from the National Endowment For the Arts, a Ruttenberg Fellowship from The Friends of Photography, a Photographer's Work Grant from the Maine Photographic Workshops, a James D. Phelan Award through the San Francisco Foundation, and a Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center For Documentary Studies at Duke University. He served as a Panelist for the Visual Arts Fellowship in Photography for the National Endowment For the Arts in Washington, DC.
Mr. Dawson's photographs have been widely exhibited and are in the permanent collections of many institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Museum of American Art, (Smithsonian Institution) Washington, DC; the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Center For Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson; the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris: and the Carpenter Center For the Visual Arts at Harvard University.
Mr. Dawson was born in Sacramento, California in 1950. He received his B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1972 and his M.A. from San Francisco State University in 1979. Dawson served as a member of the Board of Directors of San Francisco Camerawork and later of the Friends of Photography. He is a founding member and continues to serve on the Board of PhotoAlliance. He has been an Instructor of Photography at San Jose State University since 1986 and is now an Instructor of Photography at Stanford University since 1996.
To purchase or ask questions about Robert Dawson's work please contact Scott Nichols Gallery at info@scottnicholsgallery.com. To contact Robert Dawson directly please email landscape@igc.org.
Selected Resume
SELECTED AWARDS, GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Columbia Foundation Grant, San Francisco, CA for the New Deal Legacy Project, Co-recipient, 2004
Best Book of the Year Award, New York Times, New York, NY, Co-recipient, 1993
Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize, Center For Documentary Studies at Duke University, Co-recipient, 1992
Visual Artists Fellowship, National Endowment For the Arts, 1988
New Faces Award, American Photographer, New York, NY, 1986
Ruttenberg Fellowship, Friends of Photography, 1984
The Photographer's Work Grant, Maine Photographic Workshops, 1984
California Arts Council Grant, Co-recipient, 1984
California Council For the Humanities Grant, Co-recipient, 1984
James D. Phelan Award, San Francisco Foundation, 1982
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Where We Live, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA 2006
The Land Through A Lens, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC 2003
A Doubtful River, University of Nevada Press, Reno, NV by Robert Dawson, Peter Goin and Mary Webb
2000
Seizing the Light: A History of Photography, McGraw Hill, Boston, MA 2000
Farewell, Promised Land: Waking from the California Dream, University of California Press,
Berkeley, CA by Robert Dawson and Gray Brechin, 1999
The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
by Robert Dawson and Stephen Johnson, text by Gerald Haslam, 1993
Between Home and Heaven: Contemporary American Landscape Photography, National
Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1992
Arid Waters: Photographs From the Water in the West Project, University of Nevada Press, 1992
Aperture, #120, "Water in the West," 1990
Robert Dawson Photographs, Gallery Min, Tokyo, Japan, 1988
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (* indicates solo exhibition)
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA “Where We Live Photographs of America” 2006
Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy “Arti & Architettura 1900-200” 2004-2005
FotoFest 2004, Houston, TX “Water in the West Group” 2004
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC “The Land Through A Lens” 2003-2005
Tokyo Fuji Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan “Go On Being, Our Blue Star!” 2002
The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA “The Great Wide Open” 2001
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA “Made in California” 2000
The Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA “Awakening from the California Dream” 1999 *
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY "Perpetual Mirage" 1996
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA "Crossing the Frontier" 1996
National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC "Between Home and Heaven" 1992
Sheppard Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, NV "The Water in the West Project" 1991
The Friends of Photography, San Francisco, CA "Nature and Culture" 1989
Gallery Min, Tokyo, Japan "Robert Dawson" 1988 *
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA "The Great Central Valley Project" 1986
San Francisco Camerawork, San Francisco, CA 1982 *
"At Mono Lake", Traveled throughout the United States, 1980 - 1983
SELECTED PROJECTS
New Deal Legacy Project, Director and Photographer, 2004 – present
Global Water Project, Director and Photographer, 2001 – present
American Public Library Project, Director and Photographer, 1994 - present
Farewell, Promised Land Project, Co-Director and Photographer, 1992 - 1999
Pyramid Lake Project, Co-Director and Photographer, 1989 - 2000
Water in the West Project, Co-Director and Photographer, 1983 - present
Great Central Valley Project, Co-Director and Photographer, 1982 - 1993
IN THE PERMANENT COLLECTION OF
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Library of Congress, Washington, DC
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
The Center For Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX
The Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA
Bibliotheque Nationale, Cabinet des Estampes, Paris, France