David Plowden Vanishing Point : Laurence Miller Gallery

Laurence Miller Gallery Exhibition April 3 - May 31, 2008

David Plowden Vanishing Point

David Plowden Vanishing Point Exhibition From April 3 – May 31, 2008 Laurence Miller Gallery will feature a small selection of iconic images from David Plowden’s new book Vanishing Point that document an American past: trains, bridges, farms, industries, and landscapes that have gradually, almost imperceptibly, vanished.

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.

(click image for detail view)

Astoria Bridge
Columbia River, Astoria, OR, 1968
9.75 x 10.75" silver print

Davidi Plowden, Central Pacific locomotion

Canadian Pacific Railway
Steam Locomotives
Glen Engine Terminal, Montreal
Quebec, Canada, 1960
11 x 14" silver print

East of Las Vegas
New Mexico, 1971
11 x 14" silver print

Canadian Pacific Railway # 2408
Vaudreiul, PQ, 1960
9 x 7.5" vintage silver print

Yaquina Bay Bridge
Newport, OR, 1968
14 x 11" silver print

Fireman
Blue Ridge Railway
Tye River, Virginia
10 x 8" vintage silver print

Faulk Co., South Dakota
Harvest Wheat, 1971
7 1/8 x 8 1/8" vintage silver print

Ferryboat Elmira
Approaching Hoboken, NJ
on Last Day of Operation, 1967
11 x 14" vintage silver print

Great Northern Railway
Grain Extra, Eastbound Near Doran
Minnesota, 1956
11 x 14" silver print

Golden Valley, North Dakota, 1971
14 x 11" silver print

Mid-Hudson Bridge
Poughkeepsie, NY, 1969
14 x 11" vintage silver print

Harlem River Tugs
New York City, SS America on Right
1959-60
10 x 8" vintage print

St. Lawrence Steamship Lines, 1964
8 x 8" vintage silver print

View of Lake Michigan
from Ludington, Michigan, 1963
11 x 14" silver print

Missouri River Bridge
Washington, Missouri, 1974
11 x 14" vintage silver print

Young's High Bridge
Kentucky River
Tyrone, Kentucky, 1968
11 x 14" vintage silver print

Will County, Illinois, 1981
9 x 12" vintage silver print

Westbound Phoebe Snow
at Scranton, PA, 1964
11 x 14" silver print

Saline County, Missouri, 1974
11 x 14" vintage silver print

Stack Detail, Ann Arbor # 7
Ann Arbor Railroad Car Ferry
Frankfurt, Michigan, 1963
11 x 14" vintage silver print

Westbound Great Northern
Railway, Freight Train West
of Havre, Montana, 1968
11 x 14" silver print

Steamer Kinsman Independent
Kinsman Lines, Unloading Cement
Clinker, Superior, WI, 1985
11 x 14" silver print

St. Lawrence River near
Baie St. Paul, Quebec, SS Tadonnac
Canada Steamship Lines, 1964
8 x 8.5" vintage silver print

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