I've been busy! Working, of course, but I found time to get to the very last weekend of the Wild Beauty exhibition of historic photographs of the Columbia River Gorge at the Portland Art Museum. The show spanned the distance from large format 20x22" prints made from glass plates with a very large camera by Carleton Watkins in 1867 and again in 1882-5 to Kodachrome prints by Ray Atkeson in the 1950's - from the earliest railroad and commerce in the Gorge up to the completion of The Dalles Dam that flooded the ancestral fishing grounds of all of the Native Peoples of the Gorge (and beyond) at Celilo Falls. I went by myself and took two hours to take it in on Saturday and ended up going again on Sunday with my Dad. He actually saw Celilo before it was gone when he was a kid in 1950.
I liked the hand colored silver prints made by the Kiser brothers. They lived on the Oregon side opposite Beacon Rock in the early 1900's and had the advantage of being able to photograph the light in the Gorge in all kinds of weather and moods. I love the look of hand colored photographs.
The work of Lily White and Sarah Hall Ladd, both wives of the descendants of some of the first pioneers in the area who had become society wives when the pioneers became successful and the city of Portland's founding fathers, were also made over time spent living in the Gorge - they had a very well outfitted houseboat, the Raysark, that they anchored at various places on the river and took a smaller boat out to get to the viewpoints, waterfalls and other landscape features that they wanted to photograph. They had complete darkroom facilities on the Raysark. Their work also captures a sense of time and the changing moods of the river - as well as being beautifully composed and executed as capital "A" Art.
The Gorge is rather a Portlander's backyard. A mere half hour away from your desk at work are hiking trails, waterfalls and amazing scenery. You can see Multnomah Falls quickly from the lodge and the viewpoint at the bottom or you can hike the trail up to the top and from there take off on the Larch Mountain Trail for days if you wanted to. I used to go do the trail up the falls as a stress buster and see if I could pass everyone on the way up. It's all switchbacks and very steep. Just about every hike in the Gorge has a 2,000 foot or better elevation gain. But there are places you can drive to and simply park the car, get out and enjoy the view. The Vista House at Crown Point is like that. Or you can hike Angel's Rest and look down on Crown Point.
All I can say is this exhibition made me want to get out and go hiking! It would be a bit snowy and cold right now. Or muddy at lower elevation. It has gotten warmer since our holiday snowstorm adventure. We've had weather in the 50's and sunny this week. After it warmed up too quickly and flooded all around - not in Portland itself really - the area last week. Closed I-5 at Chehalis for a couple days. You couldn't get to Seattle unless you flew.
If they didn't want $75.00 for the catalogue - well worth it, but a bit steep for me right now, even with a 10% member discount - I'd be perusing it right now.
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