California's Changing Landscape: The Way of Water | George Rose
November 18, 2023 - July 8, 2024
Opening Reception with the Artist Sunday, December 10th, 3 - 5 p.m.
George Rose, Warning Sign, San Luis Reservoir at 16%, Santa Nella, Merced County, August 30, 2021.
George Rose, Northern California, Record Flooding, January 2023.
The California Nature Art Museum is pleased to host California’s Changing Landscape: The Way of Water, a solo exhibition by renowned photographer George Rose on view November 18, 2023 through July 8, 2024. Featuring more than 20 large-format inkjet photographs of the Golden State, this timely exhibition showcases Rose’s recent expansive documentation of California’s complicated and dramatic water story.
George began this project during the Covid-19 pandemic, just as the effects of drought were becoming increasingly visible and many of his images capture those dramatic scenes. But then suddenly in early 2023 California was hit with record-setting rain and snowstorms, which effectively filled reservoirs and – at least temporarily – ended the drought. It was a fortuitous happenstance, as George was able to capture California’s landscapes as both dry and thirsty, and as lush and full, creating a true yin and yang effect on his photography.
“I have always been curious about how we acquire our drinking water,” said author and photographer George Rose. “I made the decision to educate myself about California’s convoluted water systems and set out to photograph as many of the important and not-so-important state water reservoirs as possible. As I looked back, I realized I was witnessing a changing climate and landscape which was evolving before my eyes.”
His vast exploration of the state and its fraught relationship with water will culminate with the release of his forthcoming book California’s Changing Landscape: The Way of Water which is due for release in Spring, 2024. Preorders for the book will be announced soon!
We are proud and excited to announce the arrival of the museum's first book, published in collaboration with author and photographer George Rose!
This beautiful hardbound book contains amazing images from all over California, documenting severe drought and a surprise recovery thanks to strong rains in early 2023. California has a very complicated story of water that Rose has documented and some of those images are in his current exhibition at the museum. The many more photos and essays in the book will fascinate you.
It is available in our gift shop for $38.95 and museum members get 15% off! It is also available in our online store. Go to Store »
We are so grateful to the many sponsors who made the publication of the book possible!
About George Rose
George Rose
George Rose, Moored Houseboats, Lake Oroville at 25% capacity, Feather River, Butte County, September 1, 2021.
Over 50 years years ago, George Rose began his long career as a photographer. Throughout the years, he has traveled a long and winding road through the elite world of popular music, film, news, politics, and sports, eventually leading him to California’s Wine Country. During his prolific years as a Los Angeles-based photojournalist, Rose developed a remarkable and historic body of photographic work focused on popular culture.
In the 1970s and 80s, Rose served six years as a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. His independent assignments, focused primarily on the entertainment industry, have been published in USA Today, Time, Newsweek and Rolling Stone. Images from this era are collected in the 2008 book entitled Hollywood, Beverly Hills & Other Perversities published by Ten Speed Press. Over 40 vintage prints of his are in the permanent collection of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
From 1982 to 1996, Rose prowled the sidelines of the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders games as a photographer for the National Football League (NFL). Thousands of these images have been published in officially sanctioned NFL books, calendars, trading cards and game programs.
Rose co-owned and co-published the Mendocino Grapevine, an award-winning Northern California weekly newspaper based in Ukiah. It was during this period that he became friendly with the Fetzer family (owners of Fetzer Vineyards), planting the seeds of a future career in wine. Despite the rigors of publishing a newspaper, Rose maintained his close relationship with USA Today and a handful of other national publications throughout the 1980s.
In 1987, Rose won a World Press Photo Award for news, and was named California “Newspaper Photographer of the Year” in 1976 by the University of Missouri, School of Journalism. The Los Angeles Times twice nominated him (1979 and 1980) for a Pulitzer Prize.
For the past 25 years, Rose worked as a wine industry executive communications director at four successful wine companies: Fetzer Vineyards, Allied Domecq Wines USA, Kendall-Jackson, and J Vineyards & Winery. During this time, he continued to pursue his passion of photography. Rose is the 2017 recipient of the “Louis Roederer International Wine Writer Award” for “Best Artistry” and was a 1st place winner in the “Errazuriz Wine Photographer of the Year” in 2018.
His vineyard photos have been used in numerous publications and calendars throughout the world of wine, and in 2007, Chronicle Books published a collection of those images in a book entitled The Art of Terroir. In 2014, the Wine Institute (California Wines) published his book, Down To Earth: A Seasonal Tour of Wine Sustainability in California, with author Janet Fletcher. VINEYARD Sonoma County, his first large format, coffee table-style book, was released in 2017, followed by WINE COUNTRY Santa Barbara County, released in 2019. His forthcoming book, California’s Changing Landscape: The Way of Water will be released in 2024.
Rose, a contributing photographer with Getty Images, lives in Santa Barbara County’s Santa Ynez Valley. Much of his time is devoted to documenting the natural environment as well as top vineyard estates up and down the coast of California.