Salt River Canyon, Arizona

Michael A. Smith, American, 1942 - 2018

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1978

Gelatin silver print

Image: 7 1/2 × 19 9/16 in. (19 × 49.7 cm)

Overall: 13 × 25 in. (33 × 63.5 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Harley and Stephen C. Osman, Class of 1956, Tuck 1957

PH.2004.77.47

Geography

Place Made: United States, North America

Period

20th century

Object Name

Photograph

Research Area

Photograph

Not on view

Inscriptions

Signed, in graphite, lower right, below image: Michael A. Smith; dated, in graphite, lower left, below image: 1978; inscribed, in graphite, on reverse, center: 82-7805-05 # 22 / SALT RIVER CANYON / ARIZONA 1978

Label

Originating amid the volcanic rock of the White Mountains, the Salt River cuts through the towering rock formations of central Arizona, flowing some 200 miles southwest to Phoenix. Water and erosion have worn away the faces of the higher plateaus, revealing the stratified layers of a geologic history. Michael A. Smith’s photograph of this soaring escarpment captures an ongoing lithic drama, millions of years in the making, instilling in us as viewers a sense of almost sublime insignificance.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 20- July 24, 2022.

Provenance

Harley and Stephen C. Osman, Stamford, Connecticut; given to present collection, 2004.

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