Emmet Gowin (born 1941) is an American photographer. His intimate photographs of Edith and their family gained him attention in 1970s. He later turned his attention towards the American West and began taking aerial photos of landscapes that were altered by nature or humans, such as the Hanford Site (Mount St. Helens), Nevada Test Site, and Mount St. Helens. Gowin taught at Princeton University for more than 35 years.
Table of Contents
- 1 Life and career
- 1.1 Emmet Gowin
- 1.2 Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth
- 1.3 Mariposas Nocturnas: Moths of Central and South America, A Study in Beauty and Diversity
- 1.4 The Nevada Test Site
- 1.5 Beyond Sublime / Changing Nature Works by Eric Aho, Emmet Gowin, Stacy Levy, Eilen Neff and Paula Winokur
- 1.6 Ralph Eugene Meatyard: Stages for Being (UNIVERSITY OF K)
- 1.7 Petra (Photography Portfolio)
- 1.8 Emmet Gowin: Aerial photographs
- 1.9 SIGNED Emmet Gowin Photographs Retrospective 1990 Philadelphia Museum of Art
- 1.10 Emmet Gowin Photographs 1966 - 1983
Life and career
Gowin was born in Danville, Virginia. His father, Emmet Sr., was a Methodist minister and his Quaker mother played the organ in church. When he was two his family moved to Chincoteague Island, where he spent much of his free time in the marshes around their home. At about age 12 his family moved back to Danville, where Gowin first showed an interest in art by taking up drawing. He was sixteen when he saw an Ansel Adams photo of a burned tree and a young bud emerging from its stump. He was inspired to draw nature from the woods nearby his house. He applied the knowledge he gained from spending his childhood wandering through marshes and woods to his photography later. A student of his said “Photography, with Emmet, became the study of everything. “
He attended Virginia Commonwealth University after completing high school. He was inspired by Robert Frank’s and Henri Cartier–Bresson’s works during his first year at college. About this same time he met his future wife, Edith Morris, who had grown up about a mile away from Gowin in Danville. They married in 1964, and she quickly became both his muse and his model. Later they had two sons, Elijah Gowin (also a photographer in his own right) and Isaac.
Some of his earliest photographic vision was inspired by Edith’s large and engaging family, who allowed him to record what he called “a family freshly different from my own.” He stated that he wanted to observe the personality and body of that which had agreed to be revealed out of love. “
Gowin was a Rhode Island School of Design student in 1965. Gowin also studied with Aaron Siskind and Harry Callahan, two of America’s most prominent photographers. Three years later he was given his first solo exhibition at the Dayton Art Institute. In 1970 his work was shown at the George Eastman House and a year later at the Museum of Modern Art. He was also introduced to Frederick Sommer, a photographer who would become his mentor and best friend.
Peter Bunnell invited Gowin to Princeton University in 1973 as a photographer. He continued to learn from his students over the following 25 years. He asked each student to submit one photo to the portfolio at the end of every academic year. The students could then critique the portfolio. As a reminder, he included his own photograph as an example of how he, while being a teacher, was still a humble student of art.
Gowin received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1974, which allowed him to travel throughout Europe. In 1979, he was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and in 1994 the Pew Fellowship for the Arts.
In 1980 Gowin received a scholarship from the Seattle Arts Commission which provided funding for him to travel in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. Gowin started taking aerial photos shortly after Mount St. Helens erupted. For the next twenty years, Gowin captured strip mining sites, nuclear testing fields, large-scale agricultural fields and other scars in the natural landscape.
Queen Noor, a former Princeton student, invited the Gowins to take photographs of historic sites in Jordan. He traveled there over the next three years and took a series of photographs of the archaeological site at Petra. These prints were his first attempt at photographic printing toning.
Gowin, who retired as a Princeton University professor at the close of 2009, now lives with Edith in Pennsylvania.
Last update 2021-08-06