The Land of Glittering Dreams

Images from "The Land of Glittering Dreams", the fabled gold rush country of early California, present the work of George and Jo Ann Aiello, a devoted husband and wife photographic team who, since 1974, have been catching the elusive moods and vanishing landscapes of the Mother Lode. The area itself has been called more appealing than fiction; more romantic than history. Once the scene of the brawling camps for the great mines, it retains today the nostalgic traces of those extraordinary times and a sense of history, the reality of which is about to slip away from us.

The Aiellos images encompass the regional landscape, the architecture which the pioneers brought to it, the interiors in which they came to live and the tender evidences of the daily life of times past. "In our images we attempt to portray not the reality of what is, but a sense of what was. Creating a photograph that somehow interprets and captures that feeling is often the inspiration for our image making." says Jo Ann.

George and Jo Ann's images have been exhibited in solo and group exhibits and can be found in public and private collections throughout California.