Photography by Ken Light | Text by Melanie Light | Forward by Thomas Steinbeck

Current Exhibition at the North Gate Hall Gallery (January 17-May 15, 2012)

“Valley of Shadows and Dreams explores a different California from the one that most people know—a California far from Hollywood and Malibu and San Francisco, a California that in some elemental respects has not changed much since the days of the Spanish conquistadors.  The same sort of manual labor prevails in the fields, the same exploitation of the weakest and poorest still blights the land.  In this book you will find a powerful indictment not only of what has happened lately in America’s largest state, but also of what is happening across this country right now. The abuse of illegal immigrants, environmental degradation, the madness of a real estate bubble, and all the other problems of the Central Valley are unfortunately relevant nationwide.  Ken and Melanie Light bring great compassion and an eye for beauty to this subject, facing hard truths but refusing to despair.  As John Steinbeck argued more than seventy years ago, the demand for justice and the need for true democracy are timeless, essential things.”

—Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation