Weyerhauser Sorting Yard Along the Chehalis River, Cosmopolis, Washington, from the series SawDust Mountain

2007

American, born 1974

In the tradition of documentary photography, Johnson turns his eye toward Northwest communities and industries, notably fishing and timber, to reveal the complexities and conflicts over jobs and natural resources. This sorting yard assembled logs to turn into pulp—destined to become everything from toothbrush handles to cigarette filters to photographic paper—until its closure from corporate restructuring. Pulp mills, often located in places where forest products have offered employment over generations, negatively impact waterways. Johnson asks us to consider the ways in which nature, place, and identity are interconnected. His images offer a counterpoint to nature uncomplicated by human impact as in the work, for example, of Ansel Adams.

Archival pigment print

24 x 30 in. (61 x 76.2 cm)

Gift of Clinton T. Willour in honor of Marisa C. Sánchez and gift of G. Gibson Gallery

2009.7.1

Provenance: The artist

Photo: Courtesy of the artist

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Published ReferencesGallagher, Tess, with poem by David Guterson, "Sawdust Mountain", Aperture, publication date: May 2009

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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