J-School professor Ken Light’s photos exhibited at San Francisco City Hall

California’s Central Valley is the backbone of the state and the fruit basket of the entire country. This summer, San Francisco’s City Hall payed tribute to the region with the launch of a new photography exhibit, The Valley/El Valle: Photo-essays from California’s Heartland.

The show, on display on the ground floor of City Hall, features the work of more than nine photojournalists and documentary photographers, including several photographs by Ken Light, who was recently named the Reva and David Logan Professor of Photojournalism at the J-School.

Light contributed black-and-white prints from his latest book, Valley of Shadows and Dreams, which he produced in collaboration with his partner, author Melanie Light. Light’s powerful photos depict a region beset with social and environmental challenges, including inequality, immigration, and drought. The photos are paired with Melanie’s writing, which provides thoughtful socio-political context and commentary.

Light said one of the biggest challenges was figuring out how to represent big social and environmental issues of California’s Central Valley, like land use, development, and drought, in photographs. “How do you photograph and show the drought? It sounds really easy, but it was very, very difficult,” said Light.

“It was very important when doing a show about the Central Valley to include Ken and Melanie’s work, because the Valley of Shadows and Dreams is such a fantastic story,” said Ann Jastrab, one of the exhibit’s curators. “They’re really sublime pictures.”

The show will be on display until September 19, 2014.