| David Plowden is an artist and a
visual historian who has documented
the changing face of American culture.
His images honor the proud
structures and places that America has
constructed-from brawny commercial
and industrial centers to hamlets
and farms. He reveres the honest
work and spirit that built them. His
long-time friend and historian, David
McCullough, described Plowden
as "propelled, driven, by a sense of
time running out and the feeling
that he must not just make a record,
but confer a kind of immortality on
certain aspects of American civilization
before they vanish." Plowden's
dramatic black-and-white images
have been described as recording the
'eternal battle between civilization
and nature-from small towns and
cityscapes, to trains and bridges, to
industry and rural landscapes.' David
Plowden, Vanishing Point: Fifty Years of
Photography is a retrospective of 70 of
Plowden's best-known works of the
past 50 years.
David Plowden was born in
Boston in 1932 and received a B.A. in economics from Yale University in
1955. He is the author of more than
20 books, including A Handful of Dust:
Photographs of Disappearing America
(2006), Small Town America (1994),
A Time of Trains (1987), and Bridges:
The Spans of North America (1974).
Plowden's work is held in numerous
collections and has been shown in
countless exhibitions across America.
A 340-page hardcover book
published by W.W. Norton & Company
will be available directly from the
publisher.
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David Plowden (American, b.1932). EAST OF LAS VEGAS, NEW MEXICO, 1971. Gelatin silver print. © David Plowden. |
