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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.
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