David Plowden

David Plowden was born in Boston, grew up in New York City and Putney, Vermont, and has spent the past fifty years photographing the land, the small towns, the people, and the man-made wonders of a country that has been disappearing before his eyes. He once described the arc of his career as being “one step ahead of the wrecking ball.” Not that he wanted it that way. As a young man he was intrigued by trains, and photographed them for the love of the imagery. Likewise the massive bridges and awesome steamers that span America’s waterways in one fashion or another. He photographed things that fascinated him, things that he loved.  Now fifty years after his first pictures of the American landscape, David Plowden has decided that he no longer wants to photograph ghosts. This show celebrates a medium and a past that is uncluttered, unpretentious, and beautiful, but also a small reminder that growing, building, and changing also involves destroying.

David Plowden’s new book Vanishing Point highlights a career consisting of 50 years of photography.
He has authored more than 20 photography books, and his work is in numerous private, corporate and museum collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Library of Congress, the International Center of Photography, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.