Rich Bergeman, The Land Remembers

Aug. 2 Sept. 13, 2019
Opening reception Friday, Aug. 2 from 5-9pm
First Friday Live Reception, Sept. 6 from 5-9pm
Gallery Talk, Saturday, Sept. 7, at 1:30pm

Grants Pass Museum of Art
229 SW G Street
Grants Pass, OR 97528
https://www.gpmuseum.com/
541-479-3290
Open Tues-Sat 10am-5pm

In “The Land Remembers,” Corvallis photographer Rich Bergeman revisits the terrain of Southern Oregon’s Rogue River Wars of 1851-56 and retells the story through a series of 35 black-and-white infrared photographs.

Despite being one of the bloodiest and longest-running of Oregon’s Indian conflicts, the Rogue River Wars are largely forgotten today. Fighting between local tribes and incoming miners and settlers 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 South Coast tribes to reservations at Siletz and Grand Ronde, in what descendants today memorialize as Oregon’s own “Trail of Tears.

Rather than document exact sites from the war years, Bergeman said his goal was “to bring the historic conflict back into our collective consciousness through a reflective study of the 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