Rich Bergeman, The Land Remembers

May 10 – June 15, 2019
Opening reception Friday, May 10, from 5-6:30pm
Gallery Talk, Saturday, June 1, at 2pm

Mooreland Gallery
Benton County Museum
1101 Main St.
Philomath, OR 97370
www.bentoncountymuseum.org
541-929-6230
Open Tues-Sat 10am-4:30pm

“The Land Remembers: Photographs Inspired by the Rogue River Wars” features more than 30 black-and-white infrared photographs by Corvallis photographer Rich Bergeman.

Over the last three years Bergeman has explored hundreds of miles of back roads in the Rogue River Country, from Mt. McLoughlin to Gold Beach–as well as a few more miles on the river–in search of places where one of the bloodiest and longest-running wars in the state’s history raged in the early 1850s. Largely forgotten today, the Rogue River Wars festered and flared up multiple times between 1851 and 1854 before erupting into all out war involving the U.S. Army in 1855-56. It ended with the forced removal of the Rogue Valley and the South Coast tribes to reservations at Siletz and Grand Ronde in what natives remember as Oregon’s own “Trail of Tears.”

Bergeman says his goal was not to document exact sites from the war years, but rather to bring the historic conflict back to life through a “reflective look at the beautiful and sublime landscape that played host to such tragic events over 160 years ago.”

An Oregonian since 1976, Bergeman is a retired instructor of journalism and photography for Linn-Benton Community College in Albany. The 70-year-old photographer has been exhibiting his work at various venues in the Northwest and beyond since the 1980s. Over the past two decades he has focused primarily on portraying forgotten Northwest histories through photographs of what’s been left behind. His photographic portfolios can be seen at richbergeman.zenfolio.com, and in book form at blurb.com