The article is too short but worth a read. Williams also wrote the foreword to Gowin's exceptional Mariposas Nocturnas.
Witness to the Cold War in the desert - High Country News
Terry Tempest Williams on Emmet Gowin’s unflinching photos of the Nevada Test Site.www.hcn.org
"Throughout his prolific career as a photographer, Emmet Gowin has threaded together seemingly disparate subjects: his wife, Edith, and their extended family; American and European landscapes; aerial views of environmental devastation, brought together by his ongoing interest in issues of scale, the impact of the individual, and notions of belonging." ...unidentified Amazon author
I guess we'd have to agree on what old age means, but one notable example would be Harry Callahan, who photographed his wife Eleanor for more than forty years. Callahan was one of Gowin's professors at RISD.And of course, have we seen any other photographer's photos of photographer's partners in old age?
"Throughout his prolific career as a photographer, Emmet Gowin has threaded together seemingly disparate subjects: his wife, Edith, and their extended family; American and European landscapes; aerial views of environmental devastation, brought together by his ongoing interest in issues of scale, the impact of the individual, and notions of belonging." ...unidentified Amazon author
Thanks for the link. It was a good read and the photos are starkly beautiful.
This topic is a personal one for me, being raised during that Cold War and, as a navy brat, always near the center of a potential nuclear blast. In fact, we never did the drills and hid under our desks because it was obvious that we were in the zone that would be largely vaporized.
Years later, in the early-1970s, I am in the US army and found myself stationed in Europe as a guard of a Nike-Herc missile site. Half of the rounds were nukes and I got up close and personal to them as part of my guard duties. I didn’t spend much time pondering their role in a conflict, instead, compartmentalizing that just like I did growing up near one ground zero after another. However, there was an anxiety that was established that I didn’t work through until a decade or so ago.
As a result of that, when I was considering a theme for my senior art exhibition (part of completing my BFA last year) I decided to use those civil defense maps that showed the rings of destruction from ground zero as inspiration. My entire show consisted of works (collage, drawing, painting, photography, mosaic) with concentric circles as the common shapes that moved from “Circles of Destructions” to the theme title “Circles of Construction.” Should you want to take a look, the catalog of the show is here:
http://www.codecooker.com/projects_visual_arts/index.php?f=image_catalog
Thanks for the link. It was a good read and the photos are starkly beautiful.
This topic is a personal one for me, being raised during that Cold War and, as a navy brat, always near the center of a potential nuclear blast. In fact, we never did the drills and hid under our desks because it was obvious that we were in the zone that would be largely vaporized.
Years later, in the early-1970s, I am in the US army and found myself stationed in Europe as a guard of a Nike-Herc missile site. Half of the rounds were nukes and I got up close and personal to them as part of my guard duties. I didn’t spend much time pondering their role in a conflict, instead, compartmentalizing that just like I did growing up near one ground zero after another. However, there was an anxiety that was established that I didn’t work through until a decade or so ago.
As a result of that, when I was considering a theme for my senior art exhibition (part of completing my BFA last year) I decided to use those civil defense maps that showed the rings of destruction from ground zero as inspiration. My entire show consisted of works (collage, drawing, painting, photography, mosaic) with concentric circles as the common shapes that moved from “Circles of Destructions” to the theme title “Circles of Construction.” Should you want to take a look, the catalog of the show is here:
http://www.codecooker.com/projects_visual_arts/index.php?f=image_catalog
I very rarely check out the member posted websites, but I made an exception today and enjoyed your art.
Great work Vince!
I guess we'd have to agree on what old age means, but one notable example would be Harry Callahan, who photographed his wife Eleanor for more than forty years. Callahan was one of Gowin's professors at RISD.
I imagine Andre Kertesz would qualify as well but I don't have my books available to check. Elizabeth was a favorite subject for him though throughout his career.
I agree Edith Gowin was/is a great and capable model.
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