[OR_Archaeology] HISTORIC GORGE PHOTOGRAPHY FOCUS OF PORTLAND EXHIBIT

[Susan White]

GORGE PHOTOGRAPHY FOCUS OF PORTLAND EXHIBITS

Complementary exhibitions of historic Columbia River photography will open Oct. 4 at the Oregon Historical Society and the Portland Art Museum, facilities located in Portland across Park Avenue from each other.

"Stereoviews of the Columbia River Gorge" at OHS will show rare "3-D" images by Carleton Watkins, considered to be one of the finest landscape photographers of the early American West. During a series of trips from 1867 to 1885, he photographed Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, creating some of the first photographs of Castle Rock, Cape Horn, and Multnomah Falls. The exhibit will display nearly 100 stereoscopic views that Watkins printed.

Visitors to the exhibit can use the ticket for a 50 percent discount on admission to "Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957" that is opening simultaneously at the Portland Art Museum. The images in "Wild Beauty", a 200-image photographic survey of the Columbia River Gorge, comprise some of the most striking and poignant pictures taken during the period. Beginning with Watkins and including work from several photographers drawn to the region when the railroad
made the Gorge more accessible, "Wild Beauty" highlights the growing human impact on the Gorge through transportation advances, tourism, and dam construction.  A full-color illustrated book will accompany the exhibition. "Wild Beauty" was curated by Terry Toedtemeier, the museum's curator of photography.

For more information about the exhibits and related events, visit
www.ohs.org or www.pam.org