FAREWELL, PROMISED LAND PROJECT
Photographer Robert Dawson and writer Gray Brechin in 1992 won the Dorothea Lange/Paul Taylor Prize from the Center For Documentary Studies at Duke University. At that time, they proposed to look at California thirty years after the publication of Ray Dasmann's classic of the conservation movement, The Destruction of California. They then spent the next five years driving and flying over the state to record its dramatic transformation. As they did so, they also observed the close relationship between California's environmental and social history. The result is a handsome large-format book published by the University of California Press in March, 1999 with a concurrent photographic exhibition at the Oakland Museum.
Both book and exhibit examine the history of, and alternatives to, the destruction of California's environment. In the past 150 years, native people, plant life and animal populations have been decimated by economic development. The book explores the history of this destruction and why, with notable exceptions, it continues today. History reveals what we have lost while the present reveals what remains to be done if California's wild lands and agriculture are to be spared from total and piecemeal urbanization.
For all the destruction which they witnessed, however, Brechin and Dawson discovered that California remains a remarkable source of innovation which is often fueled by love of the place and memory of what it once was. They conclude by focusing on individuals and organizations attempting to deal with California's environmental issues on a grass roots level. From river restoration in Los Angeles to community restoration in San Francisco, they discovered individuals who have dedicated their lives to restoring the promise of America's Promised Land.
The book, Farewell, Promised Land: Waking From the California Dream, contains 200 images including historical photographs, illustrations and writing as well as contemporary writing and photography by Brechin and Dawson. A major exhibition of work from the project entitled "Awakening From the California Dream: An Environmental History" was shown at the Oakland Museum in 1999. The Museum also conducted several public programs in conjunction with the exhibit. An in-house video about the exhibit was produced as well. A three-year tour throughout California was sponsored by the California Council For the Humanities and California Exhibitions Resource Alliance.