Peter Brown and Kent Haruf (2005): High Plains, 1993-2006

Physical description:

20 photographic prints

Scope and content:

Portfolio comprises 10 chromogenic and 10 inkjet color prints by photographer Peter Brown originating from a collaborative project by Brown and writer Kent Haruf to document the culture and landscapes of the American High Plains, a region stretching east from the Rockies over Saskatchewan and Alberta south to the Dakotas, Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, Nebraska, and Texas. It is elevated land that originally was short-grass prairie and home to a wide variety of animals and people. Now it primarily supports ranching and agriculture and its population is dwindling. Brown's images, paired with Haruf's writings, were published in the book, West of Last Chance (2008). The prints range in size from approximately 13x19 to 20x24 inches.

The project partners write: "Our interest in this part of the world is contemporary but also includes its history and a mix of stories that have passed down over the years, stories that resonate with the land in interesting ways." Through their work, they create a visual-verbal dialogue that records "moments that describe the beauty, power, tragedy, and cultural complexity of the place itself: the way the land has been used, the way that people have lived on it, and the visual record that has been left behind."

[Source: Adapted from the Center for Documentary website for the Lange-Taylor Prize winners, viewed April 2023]

Biographical / historical:

Peter Brown was named Photographer/Educator of the Year by the Houston Center of Photography in 2004. Together with writer Kent Haruf, he received the Lange-Taylor Prize from the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University in 2005. He has also received an Alfred Eisenstadt Award, an Imogene Cunningham Award, a Carnegie Fellowship, and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Brown's work is held in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts and the Menil Collection, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the J. Paul Getty Museum; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, among other institutions.

His monograph, On the Plains , was published in 1999; the project photobook in which the images in this series appear, West of Last Chance , was published with Kent Haruf in 2008.

Arrangement:

Photographs arranged in original order as assigned by the photographer.

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