JAVA.Feb.2019

The gulf that exists between the kind of conservative
Goldwater was and the ones in power now seems
so wide as to be unbridgeable. Could you imagine
someone like Mitch McConnell taking artistic photos
for kicks?
Looking at “Desert Corsage, 1936,” Goldwater’s
beautiful close-up of a cactus blossom, it’s easy
to buy into this vision of Goldwater as the kinder,
gentler conservative. But it’s important to remember
that this is the man whose decision to vote against
the Civil Rights Act (based on an unyielding belief in
small government) helped kick-start the “Southern
Strategy” that encouraged the Republican Party to
cultivate racists as a voting bloc.
So as much as one tries to focus on the photography,
it’s hard not to think about these things. It’s hard to
look at Goldwater’s rich, artfully composed shots
of the natural world and not think about state
parks being vandalized and neglected during the
government shutdown. It’s hard to look at photos of
noble, wise Native Americans and not think of them
being yelled at by adolescent punks in red hats.
It’s hard to gaze at the shadows of mountains in
the backgrounds of Barry Goldwater’s photographs
and not think about an oil exec surveying the same
landscape, wondering just how much oil can be
ripped out of it.
They are lovely photos. There’s no doubt about that.
Goldwater knew his way around a shutter.
Photographs by Barry M. Goldwater: The Arizona Highways
Collection
Through June 23
Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West
scottsdalemuseumwest.org
Barry M. Goldwater, Native American Child, 1956; Courtesy of the Barry &
Peggy Goldwater Foundation.
Portrait of the Artist as a Married Man, Taken at Coal Mine Canyon between
Tuba City and Third Mesa, c. 1935. Photo by Peggy Goldwater. Courtesy of
the Barry & Peggy Goldwater Foundation.
Barry M. Goldwater, Big Country,1953; Courtesy of the Barry & Peggy
Goldwater Foundation.
Barry M. Goldwater, Valley of the Monuments, 1967; Courtesy of the Barry &
Peggy Goldwater Foundation.
JAVA 17
MAGAZINE