ROBERT DAWSON PHOTOGRAPHY

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.

Link to book.

Last wild California grizzly bear, San Francisco, Looking down on spray, Shasta dam, Griffith Observatory and energy grid, Los Angeles, Palms and pool, Salton Sea, Aerial view of downtown, San Francisco, Live Power Community Farm, Covelo, Captain Jack's Stronghold, Lava Beds National Monument, Clear-cut logging, North Coast, Hills and grass, Carrizo Plain, Cotton, Five Corners, San Joaquin Valley, Where 200 tons of DDT were dumped under water, Whites Point, San Francisco's water from Hetch Hetchy, near Mather, Ft. Tejon, Owens Valley water heading south, Owens Valley, Cloud over tufa, Mono Lake, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada, Map of utopian colony, East Palo Alto, "Lake Moola" billboard, Valhalla trailer court, West Sacramento, Aerial view of new homes on Central Valley farmland, Discovery Bay, Aerial, Oildale, Boy holding fish, Santa Monica, Dredge tailings, near Sutter Buttes, End of Trail statue, Mooney Park, Visalia, Father Serra and traffic, San Mateo, Former Indian School, Ft Bidwell, Gerbode Valley, GGNRA, Marin County, Girl with Mother at toxic site, San Joaquin Valley, Home surround by pesticides, San Joaquin Valley, Homes on San Andreas fault, Daley City, Homes and refinery, Long Beach, Ishi's urn, Colma, Jail Garden Project, San Francisco, Map of EPA Superfund sites, San Jose, Map of toxic neighborhood, LA, Mine effluence, Sacramento River, Model of Mission Dolores, San Francisco, Applying pesticides to new crops, San Joaquin River, San Joaquin Valley, Polluted New River enters Salton Sea, Old farm workers, South Dos Palos, One Tree sign, San Francisco, Pioneer Monument, San Francisco, Polluted New River, Mexican American border, Calexico, Pool and red palm, Salton Sea, Private property, Lake Tahoe, Remnant farm, San Jose, Remnant of St. Francis dam, LA, Ruth Brinker, homeless activist, San Francisco, Site of massacre of Native Americans, Bloody Island, The results of fire, salvage logging, flooding and a massive landslide that closed Highway 50, American River near Whitehall,, Tule Elk Reserve, Bakersfield, Tunnel, Feather River, Two scientists discussing the demise and restoration of California's salmon, Sacramento River, West County Toxics Coalition, Richmond.