Museum Celebrates East Bay Regional Parks
with Bob Walker Photographs March 15-October 12, 2008

Oakland, CA – The Oakland Museum of California and East Bay Regional Park District present In Our Own Backyard: A Celebration of the East Bay Regional Parks, with more than 40 photographs from the museum's Bob Walker Archive, March 15–October 12, 2008.

The exhibition offers visitors a virtual tour through the East Bay parks' most scenic parks and open spaces, following the flow of water from snow-capped Mt. Diablo downstream and eventually into the Bay.

Between 1982 and 1992, Bob Walker created one of the most remarkable portraits of the East Bay landscape ever captured on film. Walker had decided to leave his archive—more than 40,000 35-mm slides and historical documents—to the Oakland Museum of California after his death, in 1992.

The East Bay Regional Park District was created in 1934 by concerned citizens who wanted to protect surplus watershed land in the hills over Oakland and Berkeley from development. Nearly 75 years later, the East Bay Regional Park District is the largest regional park agency in the nation, with 65 parks, nearly 100,000 acres of protected space, and 1100 miles of trails in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.

"Bob Walker adopted the East Bay Regional Parks and through his photography brought to life the beauty and unique features of our landscape," said Park District General Manager Pat O'Brien. "Through his insightful photographs and passion toward preservation, he was instrumental in helping to protect thousands of acres of treasured open space."

In Our Own Backyard was curated by Christopher Beaver, author of After the Storm: Bob Walker and the East Bay Regional Park District (Wilderness Press, 2007). He tracks the growth of the Park District via Walker's images and documents, video, and audio.

After the Storm includes 80 of Walker's magnificent photos. It is also an account of the photographer's courageous efforts to document and help preserve the East Bay's natural treasures.

The Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak and 10th Street, in Oakland, is one block from the Lake Merritt BART. Museum hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 10 to 5; Sunday, 12 to 5; first Friday of the month, 10 to 9. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 seniors and students with ID, free for members, City of Oakland employees, and kids five and under. Second Sundays are free. For more information, call 510/238-2200 or visit www.museumca.org.

Photo by Bob Walker, Collection of the Oakland Museum of California.

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