For most people, the Sacramento Valley is not a beautiful place. To them, the valley is only what they see through their windshield as they rocket up the Interstate at 80 miles an hour in their rush to get through its oppressive summer heat to some cool, green destination in Oregon or Washington. And what they see are endless flat miles of dusty fields and orchards: rice, tomatoes, corn, almonds, olives and walnuts. Hot, boring, flat and repetitious.



But the Sacramento Valley is a true California landscape in its own right. It is a landscape not of wild rock or majestic forests, but of emerald rice fields under an endless blue sky and of golden sunsets reflected in the placid Sacramento River. It is a landscape of farms and of rolling hills; a peaceful and pastoral landscape, reminiscent of a California long gone in other parts of the state.



As a photographer, my challenge has been to find these places, to delve beneath the dusty, bland exterior that the valley shows to casual visitors, and to record the unseen beauty that hides in full view under the endless sky.