SFMOMA Pirkle Jones Documentaray Photography

A very good show for those interested in documentary photography thru

April 18 is the documentation of the flooding of a California Valley

to make a dam in California's central valley. Particularly revelatory

of the the sacrifices made for progress in post (WWII) war expansion

in California are the photos of the last memorial day in Montecello.

The historic graveyard had to be moved to preserve it from the waters

created by the dam that flooded the valley. Highly recommended. I had

not heard of Pirkle Jones before. Well worth seeing by those in the

Bay Area and the book is available thru the museum for those who are

not able to see the show. Jones was a colleague of Dorothea Lange.

correction.. "flooding of a California Valley to make a dam in California's central valley" <i>should read</i>....effect on the community of the building of a dam which resulted in the flooding of the town of Monticello and its surrounding land in California's Central Valley.

Pirkle Jones is an interesting photographer. He's done some landscape work I find totally uninteresting yet did amazing documentary work on the Black Panthers. I'll have to hit the musuem soon.

The Black Panthers work is there too, as the show expands to include later works by both himself and his contemporaries. Definitely worth the visit. I found in looking at this "old" black and white work that there was a lot of tolerance or perhaps nonchalance vis a vis blown out highlights etc that would be absolutely scandalous today. Would be interesting to hear what people think about how exposure standards have changed. In some cases I found the uneven or imperfect exposures added to the emotional content of the photo. One in particular of some backlit chidren playing and a white shirt was totally blown out and there was a man in deep shadow, lots of loss of detail, but the whole photo was perfect, complete, and beautiful.

Thanks Quiche. I'll have to hit it during one of my lunch hours.

By the way, his Aperture monograph, <i>California Photographs</i>, was remaindered a while ago and is available <a href="http://www.daedalusbooks.com/Products/Detail.asp?ProductID=35918&Media=Book&SubCategoryID=&ReturnUrl=%2FProducts%2FSearch%2FHomeQuickSearchResult%2Easp%3FSearch%3Dpirkle%26Media%3D">here</a> for $10.

Thanks for that second good book tip in a week. My daughters saw and enjoyed the show when they were in San Francisco recently. I hadn't thought about Pirkle Jones in a long time; will look forward to reacquainting myself with his work.

Thanks, Jeff; I just ordered it.