Pivot Irrigation near the One Hundred Circle Farm and the
McNary Dam on the Columbia River, Washington, 1991
Old Hanford City Site and the Columbia River, Hanford
Nuclear Reservation near Richland, Washington, 1986
Effluent Holding Pond, Chempetrol Mines, Bohemia, Czech
Republic, 1992
Further Reading
Ackley, Clifford S. Private Realities: Recent American
Photography. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1974.
Bunnell, Peter C.Emmet Gowin: Photographs, 1966–1983.
Washington, DC: The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1983.
Chahroudi, Martha.Emmet Gowin: Photographs. Philadel-
phia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1990.
Gowin, Emmet.Emmet Gowin Photographs. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1976.
Gowin, Emmet.Emmet Gowin: Aerial Photographs. Prince-
ton: Art Museum, Princeton University, 1998.
Reynolds, Jock.Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth. New
Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery, 2002.
Shaw, Louise, Virginia Beahan, and John McWilliams, eds.
Harry Callahan and His Students: A Study in Influence.
Atlanta: Georgia State University Art Gallery, 1983.DAN GRAHAM
American
Dan Graham has been a leader among late twen-
tieth-century conceptual artists in the United States
and Canada. His early photography was an impor-
tant foundation for his later installation-based art-
work about public and private space. He is also a
critical theorist who contextualizes his work using
complex theoretical and philosophical propositions
in essay format.
Graham’s first, most widely recognized photo-
graphic project consisted of a group of straightfor-
ward photographs of houses in Jersey City, New
Jersey, accompanied by an essay. The work was
titledHomes for America and was published in
the December 1966–January 1967 edition ofArts
Magazine.The photographs showed houses from
various angles, the occupants of the houses, and
the activities taking place within the homes.
The basic look of these early photographs by Gra-
ham is part of an anti-aesthetic movement among
conceptual art photographers of the period. The
straightforward, deadpan snapshot look compares
to the work of Edward Ruscha, for example, who
showedthe west coast version of pre-fabricated hous-
ing in his book,Some Los Angeles Apartments(1965).
Graham’s alienated shots of the outside of the build-
ings also likens to the work of the German photo-
graphers who so influenced conceptual photography,
Bernd and Hilla Becher, however at a much less
refined formal level. For general purposes, Graham’s
photographs are technically simple, but in their
casual appearance, they effectively transmit the ordi-
nariness of subjects they document.
The artist’s interest in tract housing compares to
other documentary photographers. Walker Evans
was one of the first to make record of lower-income
living conditions when he and others like him
worked for the Farm Security Administration.
Graham’s intentions, however, are considerably
less straightforward. Without the text, the photo-
graphs look like documentary work, but taken
together with the article, they reek of criticism,
their deadpan, drab appearance a commentary on
the lives of those whose environments they repre-
sent. The article consisted of commentary on the
tract housing units, comparing their size, color, and
locations. The houses were analyzed and studied
like scientific information but made to seem like a
lifestyle limited by the products of mass produc-
tion. Graham’s somewhat intrusive images of the
goings-on inside the strangers’ homes are also
somewhat sardonic. The ambiance of Jersey City
becomes a field day for his flip, aesthetic review.
Graham was also cognizant of the presentation
of his photographs. He placed his images instantly
into a magazine, as opposed to offering prints for
sale at a gallery. He allows the photographs to be
reproduced in mass quantity and be made available
to a wide audience for a low cost. The result is that
he demonstrates the ease of reproduction of the
photographic medium, even for an artist, who
would be expected to be more concerned with the
uniqueness or value of an original. He also placesGRAHAM, DAN