Lecture Series: The Lights

Documentary photographers Melanie and Ken Light spoke at the May installment of CMCM's Marin Media Lecture Series.
Melanie and Ken discussed their latest book project, Valley of Shadows and Dreams.

Valley of Shadows and Dreams began with a five year exploration of the Central Valley that coincided with Melanie's work on another book. Ken and Melanie soon were fascinated by the development boom taking place throughout the Central Valley. They saw the issues that accompanied this development as the same ones challenging other communities around the world: land and water use, growing economic disparity, and population growth.

Valley of Shadows and Dreams is the second collaboration between Melanie and Ken. Their first co-authored work, Coal Hollow, is a collection of photographs and oral histories that chronicle the legacy of coalmining in West Virginia. Melanie lectures and teaches internationally and is the recipient of grants from the Soros Documentary Fund and the Rosenberg Foundation. Ken Light is the author of numerous photography books and teaches the University of California, Berkeley's School of Journalism and is a Laventhol visiting Professor at Columbia University.