David Plowden Photography Exhibit
David Plowden’s High Plains: Sixty Years of Photographs in The Brinton Museum’s S. K. Johnston, Jr. Family Gallery, May 7 through June 25, 2017
BIG HORN, Wyo (April 13, 2017) The Brinton Museum presents David Plowden’s High Plains: Sixty Years of Photographs, an exhibit of black-and-white documentary photographs of small town main streets, churches, grain elevators, steam trains, sweeping panoramas of farmland and endless skies, and the ‘salt of the earth’ inhabitants of America’s High Plains. The Brinton Museum’s David Plowden exhibit is guest curated by Keith F. Davis, Senior Curator of Photography at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City (MO). The Brinton’s show includes 58 images from a generous gift of 110 photographs recently given to the museum by the artist. David Plowden’s High Plains: Sixty Years of Photographs opens on Sunday, May 7 with a reception from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Sunday’s event is free and open to the public. This exhibition continues in the S. K. Johnston, Jr. Family Gallery through June 25th.
Born in Boston in 1932, David Plowden has spent a lifetime studying and documenting the American landscape—its cities and towns, its bridges and trains, and the hardworking people who call this area home. “At the center of David Plowden’s creative life is a deep and abiding love for the American scene,” says curator Davis. Plowden graduated from Yale College in 1955 and worked for the Great Northern Railway in 1959. He then studied under photographers Minor White and Nathan Lyons, and was close friends with the renowned documentary photographer Walker Evans, best known for his 1930s work for the Farm Security Administration. Since 1978, Plowden has lived near Chicago, and has held various teaching positions. David Plowden is represented in numerous public collections and museums including the Beinecke Library at Yale University, the Smithsonian, and the Library of Congress. He has produced 20 books and is included in many more publications on the history and art of photography.
“David Plowden’s artistry captures on film what we inhabitants of this country take for granted,” says Brinton Museum Director Kenneth Schuster, “His presentation initiates a deeper visual attention to what we see right out our back door.”
A Gallery Talk by curator Keith F. Davis on the David Plowden photography exhibit takes place on Thursday, June 15 at 7 p.m. This event is free to members, non-members $5.