Pivot Irrigation Near the One Hundred Circle Farm and the McNary Dam on the Columbia River, Washington

Emmet Gowin

Emmet Gowin is a photographer whose poignant and expressive images explore mankind’s complex and often destructive relationship with nature; he takes artful portraits of his family and loved ones, photographs of cities around the world, and aerial images of landscapes that have undergone remarkable changes, often as a consequence of human intervention. From far above the earth’s surface, Gowin has recorded the aftermath of pivot irrigation, military installations, and resource mining, showing how the earth is transformed by man. Gowin’s images, often in black and white, show a scarred, pockmarked, and sometimes abstract earth, without any sense of moral judgment. In works like Bomb Disposal Site, Tooele Army Depot (1987–96) or Mining Exploration, Near Carson City, Nevada (1987–96), Gowin makes no gesture toward condemnation but rather invites reflection on our relationship with the world around us. The artist studied under Harry Callahan at the Rhode Island School of Design, a relationship that heavily influenced his work.