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Rebroadcast: Capturing the Gorge

AIR DATE: Wednesday, December 24th 2008

Download the mp3 for this show.

What do you see in images of the Columbia River Gorge?

As part of our continuing, weather-interrupted week of rebroadcasts, we bring you a personal favorite of mine: a conversation we had two months ago with the curators of the Portland Art Museum's exhibition Wild Beauty: Photographs of the Columbia River Gorge, 1867-1957.

You can read the comments from the initial broadcast here, or add new ones below.

The conversation spanned personal and photographic histories, and brought to life images that -- because of dams, or industrialization, or the decimation of native tribes -- only exist now as prints. As such there's a sense of celebration as well as melancholy in the hour, but we present this rebroadcast with a new note of sadness: Terry Toedtemeier, the Portland Art Museum's photography curator, died on December 10th.

Single photo from the Exhibit/Book that most powerfully captures the Gorge - Watkins waterlevel shot of Cape Horn.

kljohnson — Wed Dec. 24th 12:38p.m.

Want any opinion on a rare booklet ?The Columbia River Highway? which appears to have been a memorial booklet created for the opening of the highway and the Vista House back in the early 1900?s. The book contains a couple of dozen photos that have been colored. The images are many places from Vista House through parts of the highway that no longer exist. There is no date, however, one photo has an automobile that appears to have a license plate from 1920. The booklet was published by JK Gill Co. of Portland and printed by Albertype Co. Brooklyn, NY. The photographer is A.M. Prentiss of Portland.
-Paul Lyons

LyonsPDX — Wed Dec. 24th 12:40p.m.

This is a great exhibition AND A TRIBUTE to the vision of Terry Toedtemeier. I am so grateful Terry's thinking about the photographers and their work has been captured in this recording. Wild Beauty is still up at the Portland Art Museum, and you must see it [closes January 11th].

jimleisy — Wed Dec. 24th 12:47p.m.

This is a beautiful and very moving show. Thanks for rebroadcasting it! I grew up in Portland savoring the Gorge at every opportunity, and now live in Bend which some days seems so far from the big water, the River, the ocean. Thank you for sharing the link to Terry's obituary as well -- all of this very moving and feeling-provoking about the power of place, memory, beauty, visual story in our lives.

heathermstarr — Wed Dec. 24th 12:48p.m.

As a professional photographer of the night sky with stars for many years, I have used long time exposures many times. It is interesting to take note when looking at the huge beautiful photographs of our Columbia River Gorge currently on display at the museum, that when you see water in motion in many of the oldest photographs, the image of the water in the photograph will appear as a blur or fog. This is due to the very slow photographic emulsion that the water moved during the several seconds of the exposure. The water being that of the Columbia River, nearby streams or waterfalls in each photograph. In later photographs, they soon developed faster photographic emulsions to attain shorter exposure times and you will note that the water motion appears as frozen still in time.

Keep in mind that these old original photographic surfaces were not the modern roll-film we used in our cameras in the recent century but photography from the second original inception of glass plates, the very first being on metal, with silver halide coating as you will see in the historic film and lecture. The painstaking process in the video playing on the wall in the main exhibit room is particularly interesting to watch as it displays the technique of using dangerous toxic chemistry to produce these old world photographic images. It gives tremendous appreciation for what these artisans accomplished when you think of the new world now of simply pushing an electronic button to capture a digital image.

There are several other interesting effects to notice when viewing these huge photos that may be missed as one walks through the several rooms full of the many images. I pointed out the effect of the motion of water to an elderly lady in the crowd of observers. She was delighted to hear this explained for the first time.

There are many other differing effects in the old photography aside from the sepia toned color in most of the images. The many geographical features in the gorge are now gone, many cliffs, rock formations, the flow of the river in places has been massively changed due to railroad and highway building, dams, etc. Many of the photographs show scenes that no longer exist such as the Celilo Falls with the natives fishing. Small towns and railroad stations for logging that are now gone, are among the many images of an era gone by.

The one aspect that really caught my eye as a professional photographer, is that some of the largest, and these photographs were made from the largest glass negatives ever produced at the time; 18? X 22?, is that these images are as sharp and more so than some of the best digital photography today. The razor sharp details seen in the distant of some of the photographs is absolutely stunning if only from a technical point of view.

There are many other considerations to note, as you will see the history recorded through out the text accompanying the images at the museum walls. I would encourage all who reside in our metro area to not miss this exhibit. You will come away with an entirely new historical perspective of the Columbia Gorge. ?Mark Seibold

marksolarprophet — Wed Dec. 24th 12:58p.m.

My show favorite is the Lily White photo of Klikitat elder Sally Wahkiacus seated, apparently near her home on the Klickitat River, holding an unfinished coiled cedar root basket and wearing a rare handwoven blanket of spun mountain goat hair. Nettie Jackson, her great granddaughter, suggests that the animal image is a dog. I had not known, before hearing Terry Toedtemeier speak in Hood River, that Lily White accessed such inland subjects while living on her houseboat. Thank you for rebroadcasting this fine show and allowing us to hear Terry's warm wise commentary again.

mary in Mt. Hood — Wed Dec. 24th 2:03p.m.

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