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Ruth-Marion Baruch, Woman in Black Dress, 1961, selenium toned gelatin silver.
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| FEATURE STORY |
| Dreaming California |
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AS THE NATION'S FORTUNES ROSE IN the post World War II era,
the California
Dream epitomized the American one, whether as a new frontier for the aerospace industry, or
model suburbs, or leisure pursuits. In "Dreaming California," a Berkeley Art Museum exhibition
running through May 21, three Bay Area photographers who share an ironic relation to the
dream trace its evolution and decline through three decades. Ruth-Marion Baruch’s images shift
from the "let’s go shopping" ethos of Union Square lady sophisticates to the "all you need is love"
ethos of Haight Ashbury hippies. Bill Owens humorously traces a different arc in the 1970s,
into suburbia, with its perhaps too-easily parodied "lifestyle"—a word from those times—of
hot tubs and tract homes. Larry Sultan’s own view of suburban life, focused first on his aging
parents, is both more tender and later, in his series on the San Fernando Valley porn industry,
more deflated.
For more information, please visit the BAMPFA website.
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