For four decades, Yale alumnus David Plowden has photographed the landscapes and artifacts of America -- from its small towns and rural farms to its cityscapes, steel mills, railroads and bridges -- with a special interest in the nation's vanishing scenery. One hundred of the black-and-white images he gathered during his career as a self-described "archaeologist with a camera" will be on display in the exhibit "IMPRINTS," a retrospective on the
photographer opening Friday, Sept. 26,
at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
The exhibit features photographs from Mr. Plowden's new book, "IMPRINTS. David Plowden: A Retrospective," which is being issued by Bullfinch Press/Little, Brown and Company this month. The photographs in both the book and in the exhibition explore the beauty, power, blight and significance of once-common icons and vistas that are rapidly vanishing, according to George Miles, curator of the Yale Collection of Western Americana at the Beinecke Library, which acquired a major portion of Mr. Plowden's archive of prints and research materials two years ago.
Mr. Plowden, who graduated from Yale College in 1955, began photographing steam locomotives in 1952, and has since studied, documented and commented upon the transformation of America. Remarking that he has spent his life "one step ahead of the wrecking ball," the photographer says, "I have been beset with a sense of urgency to record those parts of our heritage which seem to be receding as quickly as the view from the rear of a speeding train. I fear that we are eradicating the evidence of our past accomplishments so quickly that in time we may well lose the sense of who we are."
Alan Trachtenberg, the Neil Gray Professor of English and American studies, has described Mr. Plowden's photographs as "integers in an ongoing 40-year conversation [the artist] has been holding with the American scene."
"Taken individually, one at a time," Professor Trachtenberg observes, "Plowden's pictures refresh the eye; they instruct, they remind, they warn, they engage us in a dialogue about the present state of our world. Cumulatively, they provide a memorable legacy of American imprints in their own right."
Mr. Plowden studied with the noted photographer Minor White. He has written and illustrated 19 books and provided photographs for numerous others. His images have appeared in dozens of periodicals, including Time, Newsweek, Life, American Heritage, Audubon, Smithsonian, Fortune, Modern Photography and American Photographer. Among the major museums that have exhibited his works are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the International Center of Photography, the National Museum of American History and the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne, Switzerland. His work is also represented in the permanent collections of 18 institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Center for Creative Photography, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and the Albin O. Kuhn Library and Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County Campus.
The archive of the photographer's materials at Yale includes more than 10,000 negatives and contact prints, several thousand exhibition and reproduction prints prepared by Mr. Plowden, as well his field notebooks, journals, correspondence, research notes, drafts of his various publications and copies of virtually all of his published work. It is part of the Yale Collection of Western Americana at the Beinecke, which is also noted for its collection of 19th-century photography of the American West.
To mark the opening of "IMPRINTS," the Yale Collection of Western Americana will present a lecture titled "Permanent Way: Entering the Plowden Photograph" by John R.
Stilgoe, the Robert and Lois Orchard Professor in the
History of Landscape at Harvard University. The talk will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 26, in the lecture hall of the Yale University Art Gallery, 1111 Chapel St. (enter on High Street). A reception will follow at the Beinecke Library, 121 Wall St. The event is free and open to the public.
"IMPRINTS" will remain on view at the Beinecke Library until Dec. 23. The library is open for exhibition viewing Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. The library is closed Thanksgiving weekend.
For general information, call 432-2977 or visit the library's web site at www.library/yale.edu/beinecke/brblhome.htm.