ROBERT DAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY

Limited-edition fine art prints are available to purchase in various sizes. Most of the photographs shown on this web site are immediately available through this website. For a list of prices or to purchase a print through a gallery please contact the Scott Nichols Gallery listed below.

ROBERT DAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY
415-515-4367  landscape@igc.org

SCOTT NICHOLS GALLERY www.scottnicholsgallery.com
450 1st Street East, Suite G, Sonoma, CA 95476
707-343-1928  info@scottnicholsgallery.com

ROBERT DAWSON has long been interested in how photography can be used to understand our relationship with the environment and the commons. He is also interested in photographys ability to shape public awareness and understanding of the place we call home.

Dawson was awarded the 2018-2019 Fulbright Global Scholar award by the U.S. Department of State. Dawson's photographs have also been recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, an Artists Grant from the Graham Foundation and an Artists Grant from the Creative Work Fund. He has received grants from the National Endowment For the Arts,a Photographer's Work Grant from the Maine Photographic Workshops,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 Washingto, D.C.

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; and the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.

His first book, Robert Dawson Photographs was published by Min Gallery in Japan (1988). The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland by Robert Dawson, Steve Johnson and Gerald Haslam was published by the University of California Press (1993) and was listed as one of the best books of the year by the New York Times. An exhibit sponsored by the California Academy of Sciences toured the state for three years.

Other projects include the Farewell, Promised Land Project with Gray Brechin. The book Farewell, Promised Land: Waking From the California Dream was published by the University of California Press (1999) in conjunction with a large exhibit at the Oakland Museum. This exhibit traveled throughout California for six years and was sponsored by the California Council For the Humanities. The Pyramid Lake Project with Peter Goin and Mary Webb produced the bookA Doubtful Riverwhichwas published by the University of Nevada Press (2000). Dawson, along with his wife Ellen Manchester, was founder and co-director of the Water in the West Project, a large-scale collaboration with several other photographers. His work, along with others' from the project, was published inArid Waters: Photographs From the Water in the West Project published by the University of Nevada Press (1992). A large body of work from all the project members was collected by The Center For Creative Photography in Tucson as a permanent archive of the Water in the West Project.

Dawson's book The Public Library: A Photographic Essay was published by Princeton Architectural Press (2014). This was a culmination of an eighteen-year photographic survey of the essential role of public libraries thoughout the United States. The book includes a forward by Bill Moyers, an afterword by Ann Patchett and an endorsement by Toni Morrison. The book contains fifteen essays by writers such as Amy Tan, Anne Lamott, Charles Simic, Barbara Kingsolver, Philip Levine, etc. In 2015, the Library of Congress purchased the entire Public Library project archive for their permanent collection.

Two large-scale limited edition photographic albums have been produced by Dawson and Ellen Manchester and published by Marquand Editions. Public Library: An American Commonscame out in 2019 andThe Global Library: A Photographic Projectwas produced in 2022. The Library of Congress purchased the entire Global Library Project for their permanent collection in two groups in 2022 and again in 2024.

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 served on the Board of PhotoAlliance from 2002 to 2019. He was an Instructor of Photography at San Jose State University from 1986 to 2014. He recently retired from being anInstructor of Photography at Stanford University after teaching there from 1996 to 2018. He receivedthe Honored Educator Faculty Merit Award by the Society of Photographic Education Westin 2017.

SELECTED AWARDS, GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS

  • Fulbright Global Scholar award, U.S. Department of State, Washington, DC 2018-2019
  • Honored Educator Award, Society for Photographic Education -West, Tahoe City, CA 2017
  • Guggenheim Fellowship, Guggenheim Foundation, New York, NY 2014
  • Artists Grant, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, Chicago, IL 2013
  • Artists Grant, Creative Work Fund, San Francisco, CA,Co-recipient 2013
  • James and Doris McNamara Fund, Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 2009,2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018
  • 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
  • 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 (* indicates monographs and collaborations)

  • The Global Library: A Photographic Project,Limited-edition album of 50 prints, Marquand Editions, Tieton, WA by Robert Dawson and Ellen Manchester 2022*
  • Art on the Edge of the Abyss, The Codex Foundation, Berkeley, CA 2020
  • Public Library: An American Commons, Limited-edition album of 50 prints, Marquand Editions, Seattle, WA by Robert Dawson and Ellen Manchester 2019*
  • Photographing Shakespeare: The Folger Shakespeare Library, The Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC by Robert Dawson and Ellen Manchester 2018*
  • The Campaign for Art: Gifts for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMOMA, San Francisco, CA 2016
  • Tahoe: A Visual History, Skira Rizzoli, New York, NY and the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV 2015
  • Time Magazine, 10/27/15, "See Some of America's Most Amazing Public Libraries"
  • Carleton Watkins: The Stanford Album, Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, CA-Includes my essay "Malkoff Diggins, North Bloomfield, Nevada County, Cal." 2014
  • The Public Library: A Photographic Essay, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, NY 2014*
  • The Altered Landcape: Photographs of a Changing Environment, Skira Rizzoli, New York, NY and the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV 2011
  • Infinite City A San Francisco Atlas,University of California Press, Berkeley, CA edited by Rebecca Solnit 2010
  • Into the Sunset Photography's Image of the American West, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY 2009
  • What We Share Photographic Projects of Robert Dawson 1984-2008, Cavallo Point, Sausalito, CA 2008
  • 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)

  • San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA "The Global Library Project: A Photographic Project by Robert Dawson and Ellen Manchester" 2022*
  • Center for Creative Photography, The Universityof Arizona, Tucson, AZ "Longer Ways to Go: Photographs of the American Road" 2018
  • LH Horton Gallery, San Joaquin Delta College, Stockton, CA "On Reading in the San Joaquin" 2016*
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA "California and the West: Photographs from the Campaign for Art" 2016
  • Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV "Tahoe: A Visual History" 2015-2016
  • Mary Porter Sesnon Art Gallery, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA "Three Lives in Photography" 2014
  • Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, Stanford, CA "Public Discourse: Photographs by Robert Dawson" 2013*
  • Center For Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucscon "The Water in the West Project" 2011
  • San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA "Public Library An American Commons" 2011*
  • San Francisco Public Library, San Francisco, CA "Empire of Thirst Robert Dawson's Photographs of Water in the West" 2010*
  • City Windows Gallery, San Jose, CA "The Conscience of the City Treating Wastewater in Silicon Valley" 2010*
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA "The View From Here" 2010
  • The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY "Into the Sunset Photography's Image of the American West" 2009
  • 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

  • The Global Library Project, Photographer and Co-Director, 2016- present
  • The Folger Shakespeare Library: A Photographic Study 2014 - 2018
  • On Reading in the San Joaquin: A Photographic Survey of Libraries and Literacy inStockton and San Joaquin County, CA 2014 - 2018
  • Photographer-in-Residence, Water Pollution Control Plant, City of San Jose, CA, 2009-2010
  • New Deal Legacy Project, Director and Photographer, 2004  2008
  • Global Water Project, Director and Photographer, 2001  present
  • American Public Library Project, Director and Photographer, 1994 - 2014
  • 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

  • Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT
  • UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley, CA
  • 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
  • Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
  • The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA
  • 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