tographed the astonishing facades carved into
rock at Petra.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Gowin contin-
ued to employ aerial photography to record the
impact of humanity upon the landscape. In images
such as Pivot Irrigation Near the One Hundred
Circle Farm and the McNary Dam on the Columbia
River, Washington, 1991, he evokes the simplicity
and majesty of human survival relying on the
depletion of finite resources. Gowin observes,
‘‘The astonishing thing to me is that in spite of all
we have done, the earth still offers back so much
beauty, so much sustenance’’(Emmet Gowin: Chan-
ging The Earth, Yale University Press, 2002, p.
158). He has photographed widely divergent land-
scapes with a similar sensibility, including military
test sites, Kuwait after the Gulf War, and smoke-
stack industries in the Czech Republic. While bear-
ing witness to the degradation of the land, these are
images of stunning photographic beauty created
with the difficult and time-consuming split-tone
process that brings subtle color to black-and-
white prints. In 2002, the Yale University Art Gal-
lery (in association with the Corcoran Gallery of
Art) organized a nationally touring exhibit of his
aerial photographs. The associated book,Emmet
Gowin: Changing The Earth, was dedicated to his
mentors Harry Callahan and Frederick Sommer.
JeffreyB. EdelsteinSeealso: Aerial Photography; Callahan, Harry;
Sommer, Frederick
Biography
Emmet Gowin was born in Danville, Virginia in 1941. He
received his B.A. in 1965 from the Richmond Profes-
sional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth Univer-
sity) and his M.F.A. in 1967 from the Rhode Island
School of Design. After teaching at the Dayton Art
Institute in Ohio, 1967–1971, he joined Princeton Uni-
versity in 1973, as Professor of Photography in the
Council of the Humanities, Princeton University. He
has taught workshops throughout the United States,
Europe, and Japan. Began association with Pace/Mac-
Gill Gallery, New York, mid-1980s. His honors include
a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Grant (1974) and
two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (1977
and 1979), and awards from the Southeastern Center for
Contemporary Art (1983), the Seattle Arts Commission
(1980), the 1983 Governor’s Award for Excellence in the
Arts from the State of Pennsylvania, the 1992 Friends of
Photography Peer Award, and the Pew Fellowship in the
Arts for 1993–1994. Gowin lives in Newtown, Pennsyl-
vania, with his wife Edith.
Individual Exhibitions
1968 The Dayton Art Institute; Dayton, Ohio
1969 School of the Art Institute of Chicago; Chicago, Illinois
1971 George Eastman House; Rochester, New York
1973 The Corcoran Gallery of Art; Washington, D.C.
1982 Light Gallery; New York, New York
1983 Corcoran Gallery of Art; Washington, D.C.
1986 Petra and Mount St. Helens;Pace/MacGill Gallery,
New York, New York
1990 Emmet Gowin/Photographs: This Vegetable Earth Is
but a Shadow; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadel-
phia, Pennsylvania; traveled to Detroit Institute of Arts,
Detroit, Michigan; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Min-
neapolis, Minnesota; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts,
Richmond, Virginia; Friends of Photography, Ansel
Adams Center, San Francisco, California; Los Angeles
County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California;
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois; and
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio
1992 Emmet Gowin/Photographs; Espace Photographie
Marie de Paris; Paris, France
Photographs: Landscape in the Nuclear Age; organized
by American Center of the American Embassy and the
City of Fukuoka; traveled 1992–93 to Osaka, Kyoto,
Saporo, Yokohama, and Tokyo, Japan
1996 Photographs from the Pew Fellowship: Jerusalem, Kan-
sas, and the Nevada Test Site; Pace/Wildenstein/MacGill
Gallery, New York, New YorkGroup Exhibitions
1969 Vision and Expression; George Eastman House,
Rochester, New York
1971 Thirteen Photographers; Light Gallery, New York,
New York
1977 Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since
1960 ; Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1997 Unmapping the Earth; ‘97 Kwangju Biennale,
Kwangju, Korea
1999 Transmutation: Silver Prints; Bowdoin College Mu-
seum of Art, Brunswick, Maine
The Model Wife; Museum of Photographic Arts, San
Diego, California
2000 Emmett Gowin and Students; Alfred University,
Alfred, New York
2003 The New Sublime; Northlight Gallery, Herberger
College of Arts, Arizona State University; Tempe, Ari-
zona
2004 In the Center of Things: A Tribute to Harold Jones;
Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona;
Tucson, ArizonaSelected Works
Nancy, Danville, Virginia, 1969
Nancy and Dwayne, Danville, Virginia, 1970
Nancy and Twine Construction, Danville, Virginia, 1971
Edith, Danville, Virginia, 1971
Edith and Elijah, Newtown, Pennsylvania, 1974
Spirit Lake, Mount St. Helens, Washington, 1980GOWIN, EMMET