The histories of the American West and photography are synchronous and interwoven: as the nation expanded photography provided pivotal records of exploration, exploitation, and newly formed spatial identities. This talk will examine post-1945 landscape photography, tracing the relationship between burgeoning housing development and novel modes of photographic practice in the Bay Area and Los Angeles regions. It will consider a how a range of work, from the documentary to the conceptual, is attuned to the formal and affective qualities of vernacular architecture, and, in turn, how these photographs impact the charged discourse on environmental transformations.

Bridget is a Visiting Lecturer in the Art History Program at UC Davis, teaching “Art After Modernism, 1948-Present” (Fall 2013) and “Photography in History” (Spring 2014). She researches West Coast artists such as Robert Bechtle, Ralph Goings, and Richard McLean and examines Photorealism in light of the evolution of inter-media relationships and the connections between realist painting and the American landscape. She received her Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.