'Pirkle Jones and the Changing California Landscape'
Through April 18, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

PHOTOGRAPHS LANGUISH IN antique shops; who are – or were – these people? When the metaphorical dust settles, photographs, memories, and artifacts remain. After a few generations, these too will pass. The heart of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's exhibit "Pirkle Jones and the Changing California Landscape," Death of a Valley, was made in 1956 by Jones and the legendary Dorothea Lange and documents the final year of a farming town now submerged under the Lake Berryessa reservoir in Napa County. The creation of the dam was fueled by the voracious demand for water for California's growing commercial farms and expanding cities. These images provide a poignant portrait of a community shutting down, preparing to move on. Additional photos (60 of them) and informative text create a picture of a changing California over the past 30 years. We see a shift in emphasis from landscape to land use, with more than a hint of suspicion of progress and ambivalence about the future. Today it seems people have become complacent, trusting that the environmental movement is "taking care of the problem." Still, the ravaging of the environment and its inhabitants – human and animal – persists, noticed or not. This haunting exhibition, cogently organized by senior curator Sandra Phillips, is a cautionary tale, the kind to which photography so often bears witness, a document of what was and is no more, a story of how, in the name of progress and peace, our fragile balance is tipped, to provide a temporary fix with permanent repercussions.

Fri.-Tues., 11 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thurs., 11 a.m.-9 p.m., 151 Third St., S.F. $10, $7 seniors, $6 students, free for 12 and under and members (free first Tues.; half price Thurs., 6-9 p.m.). (415) 357-4000, www.sfmoma.org. (Jo Leggett)