Robert Dawson's photographs have been recognized by a Guggenheim Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, a Creative Work Fund grant, a Graham Foundation grant, a Fellowship from the National Endowment For the Arts and the Dorothea Lange-Paul Taylor Prize from the Center For Documentary Studies at Duke University. His books include Robert Dawson Photographs (1988); The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland (University of California Press, 1993); Farewell, Promised Land: Waking From the California Dream (University of California Press, 1999); A Doubtful River (University of Nevada Press, 2000) and most recently The Public Library: A Photographic Essay (Princeton Architectural Press, 2014).  He is founder and co-director with his wife Ellen Manchester of the Water in the West Project. Dawson's photographs are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian Institution); The Center For Creative Photography at the University of Arizona; The Getty Museum and the Library of Congress. In 2015 the Library of Congress purchased Dawson's entire Public Library project archive for their permanent collection. Dawson received his B.A. from the University of California at Santa Cruz and his M.A. from San Francisco State University. He has been an Instructor of Photography at San Jose State University since 1986 (now retired) and an Instructor of Photography at Stanford University since 1996.

Japanese Bridge, Iceland (diptych) - The Global Water Project

Flooded Salt Air Pavilion, Great Salt Lake, UT - The Water in the West Project

Wastewater Treatment -San Jose Wastewater Treatment Plant Photographer-in-Residence

Modesto arch, Modesto, CA - The Great Central Valley Project

The Needles, Pyramid Lake, Nevada (diptych) - The Truckee River Pyramid Lake Project

Discussing the demise and restoration of California's salmon, Eagle Creek, CA - Farewell, Promised Land Project

Library, Death Valley National Park, CA - The Public Library Project