Artist Profile: David Plowden
Published January 1, 2017 by Nicole Webb
David Plowden
b. 1932
"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." – David Plowden
Illinois-based photographer David Plowden's images focus on the struggle between civilization and nature, old and new. In his photographs and writing, he explores the beauty, power, light, and significance of once commonplace icons, capturing the visual texture of a bygone America on the verge of vanishing. His historical documentary-style photographs have documented urban cities, steam trains, farmlands, and small towns across America. Above all, Plowden's images capture an intimacy that brings subject and viewer to a bygone era.
David Plowden, Great Northern Railroad, Havre, Montana, silver gelatin print, 1968, 1999.747.1g.
David Plowden, LTV Steel, Indiana Harbor Works, East Chicago, Indiana, silver gelatin print, 1980, 2001.235.1.
David Plowden, Will County, Illinois, silver gelatin print, 1968, 1999.747.1c.