David Plowden, photographic icon

This past weekend I became reacquainted with the work of a favorite photographer: David Plowden. Searching for inspiration at the main library branch in downtown Cincinnati, I found myself in the oversized book section, looking at (imagine this) the photo books. The book “David Plowden: Vanishing Point: Fifty Years of Photography” was on the shelves. It was just what I’d been looking for (without knowing what I was looking for).

Plowden has documented the American Midwest for the past fifty years and this book is a retrospective of that work. His first subjects were steam locomotives and, as a young man, he once served as assistant to the famous train photographer, O. Winston Link (who used many dozens of flash bulbs to light spectacular train scenes at night). Over the course of his career, Plowden has traversed the back roads to find beautiful vistas, bridges, boats, rural folk and testaments to the industrial age. At the age of 75 years he has been photographing as recently as 2006 and some of those images are included in the book.

I remember first seeing his work in (I believe) Camera Arts Magazine. It must have been 1980 or so, about the time I first picked up a camera. The technical perfection of his black and white images became my goal. It was also the first I’d seen square format images, the product of his Rollei and Hasselblad cameras. A portrait of Plowden accompanied the article, a sturdy man in his 40s.

Now, 28 years later, I flipped to the back of the cover jacket on “Vanishing Point” to see a current day portrait of Plowden. I wouldn’t have recognized him but I certainly recognized the work, a seamless continuation of the exploration I first enjoyed so many years ago. And not only are the images beautiful, the photographer also shares many observations in the back of the book, including his technical approach to the medium. Rarely is a photographer so transparent with his methods and motivations.

His images are a reminder of the lush richness of silver-based (film and paper) photography and the craftsmanship of the fine printmaker. But, as Plowden honestly points out, many of his favorite tools (films and papers) have disappeared from the photographic landscape during the switch from silver printmaking to digital based imagery. Despite being 75 years of age he is anxious to learn digital print making and the details of Photoshop, he says.

If you have a chance to view David Plowden’s website and gallery of images you may also enjoy this television interview with him, aired just last week (July 31, 2008) on PBS Iowa’s Intelligent Talk Television. He talks about using the square format, shooting in black and white and remembrances of famous friends like fellow iconic photographer, Walker Evans.