David Plowden

Last updated
David Plowden
Born (1932-10-09) October 9, 1932 (age 92)
Known for Photography
Awards Guggenheim Fellowship
1968
Website davidplowden.com

David Plowden (born October 9, 1932) [1] is an American photographer who has made historical documentary photography of urban cities, steam trains, American farmlands, and small towns. [2] [3] He has produced 20 books and his work is held in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Center for Creative Photography, George Eastman House, Library of Congress, Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, and Smithsonian Institution. Plowden was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1968.

Contents

Early life and education

Plowden was born in Boston and grew up primarily in New York City. [4] [5] He graduated from Yale College in 1955. [6]

Life and work

After working for the Great Northern Railway in 1959, he studied under Minor White and Nathan Lyons, and was an assistant to O. Winston Link and George Meluso. [7] [8]

He has held teaching positions at Illinois Institute of Technology; Institute of Design, University of Iowa; School of Journalism, University of Baltimore; and Grand Valley State University. [1]

In 1995, Plowden agreed to transfer the entire archive of his notes, negatives and prints to the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University at the end of his career. [9]

In 2017, the Milwaukee School of Engineering Grohmann Museum exhibited his Steel: The Cycle of Industry collection and repackaged a photo book of the same name, which chronicles steel from its start as taconite pellet mines in Minnesota to the blast furnaces of Gary, Indiana, and from its shipment across the Great Lakes to the demise of the mills in places like Lackawanna, NY. [10]

Plowden's photographs are characterized by their stark detail. In the steel mill photos, he attributed this to shots he would overexpose and under develop. [10] On his subject matter—steam engines, small town Main Streets, steel mills—Plowden said: "I have always felt that I have been standing in the middle ground between two eras, with one eye on the 19th century and the other on the 21st ... all across America we have left abandoned, like carcasses after the feast, that which only yesterday was state-of-the-art invention." [11]

Personal life

In July 1977, he married Sandra (née Schoellkopf). [12] He lives in Winnetka, Illinois. [1]

Publications

Publications with photographs and text by Plowden

Publications solely containing photographs by Plowden

Publications with photographs by Plowden and text co-authored with another

Awards

Collections

Plowden's work is held in the following permanent collections:


References

  1. 1 2 3 "ABOUT". davidplowden.com. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  2. "Imprints: The Photographs of David Plowden | Buffalo AKG Art Museum". buffaloakg.org. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  3. WGVU Presents | David Plowden: Light, Shadow and Form. Archived from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved 2025-03-01 via www.pbs.org.
  4. Rosenberg, David (2015-02-09). "The Hidden Beauty of American Train Travel". Slate. ISSN   1091-2339 . Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  5. "David Plowden: Portraits of America | Middlebury College Museum of Art". www.middlebury.edu. 2024-01-26. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  6. "David Plowden: An American Photographer". Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. 2010-01-15. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  7. "Requiem for Steam: The Railroad Photographs of David Plowden – Warner Transportation Museum". transportation.museums.ua.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  8. "Requiem for Steam: The Railroad Photographs of David Plowden – Center for Railroad Photography & Art" . Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  9. 1 2 "David Plowden: Photographs and Papers". Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. 2022-10-07. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  10. 1 2 "Steel: The Cycle of Industry opens Jan. 20 at Grohmann Museum | News". Milwaukee School of Engineering - MSOE. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  11. Industrial Landscape. W. W. Norton. 1985.
  12. "Sandra Schoellkopf Is Bride of David Plowden Sandra Owen Wed". The New York Times. 1977-07-09. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  13. "Railroad Photographs of David Plowden on display at Naples Depot - Naples Florida Weekly". Naples Florida Weekly -. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  14. online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304069604579153451960024232.html
  15. "David Plowden". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  16. "David Plowden". The Art Institute of Chicago. 1932. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  17. "David Plowden". Center for Creative Photography. 2019-11-22. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  18. "David Plowden | People | George Eastman Museum". collections.eastman.org. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  19. "David Plowden collection : Photographs of architecture, landscapes, and transportation in the United States and Canada". Library of Congress .
  20. "Works – David Plowden – Artists/Makers – The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art". nelson-atkins.org. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  21. "David Plowden North American Bridge Photographs | NMAH.AC.1019 | SOVA, Smithsonian Institution". sova.si.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-01.
  22. "David Plowden Steel Manufacturing Photographs | NMAH.AC.1020 | SOVA, Smithsonian Institution". sova.si.edu. Retrieved 2025-03-01.