A Handful of Dust: Disappearing America

by David Plowden

An elegy for our changing landscape by a master photographer. Since making his earliest documentary photographs in the 1950s, David Plowden has honored those proud structures and places that America has discarded; from brawny commercial and industrial centers to small towns and farms. He reveres the honest work and spirit that built them. But the scene has changed much in the last five decades, and what's left of the honesty of small communities and the working of the land is all but gone, dealt a death blow by outsourcing, conglomerization, and our incessant drive to buy cheap at any cost. The America of these photographs is a bittersweet reminder of things once cherished and a life no longer possible. Deserted Main Streets and crumbling facades stare at us blindly. Abandoned houses and buildings reach back to ground. Plowden's work is a sad symphony; incomparably and irresistibly beautiful, while reminding us of our loss. 77 duotone photographs

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, History, Art

128 pages, Hardcover

First published December 5, 2005

About the author

David Plowden is the author of more than twenty photography books, including Bridges: The Spans of North America, Vanishing Point: Fifty Years of Photography, and Requiem for Steam. He lives in Winnetka, Illinois.

Reviews

[Barbara Lovejoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first about David Plowden when I read the book "Brave Companions" by David McCullough. I have always been fascinated with photography that captures life. This book is especially fascinating because Plowden has captured life that has disappeared or is disappearing. Although I enjoyed all the photos, there were four or five that especially touched my heart. I highly recommend this book as it is a treasure.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Abandoned buildings, farms, factories, and grain elevators document the demise of an era in these intensely desolate photographs. Of the 76 plates included, the majority are from small towns in Iowa, Kansas and Illinois but Chicago, Brooklyn, New Mexico and a half dozen other states are also represented. In the 15 pages of text Plowden writes of revisiting places he first photographed in the 1970s. David Plowden is to photography what David McCullough is to history. I love his photographs – will have to see which of his books I can find next.

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

EXCELLENT!!

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

In love with the photographs. And the subject!

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plowden's photos are marvelously evocative as always. His introductory text moves them to a dimension beyond ruin porn. Usually when you see pictures of rural decay you respond to that evocativeness and to the formal beauty of the scenes. Plowdwn connects you to the stories behind these mostly Midwestern images in the same way that he's connected, by talking about what these places (and the people who once populated them) were like when he first photographed them years ago. There really is a narrative behind almost every ruined farmhouse or boarded-up store.

Also of note is the technical essay at the end of the book where he goes into great detail about his photographic methods. As a non-photographer I've always been awed by what it takes to shoot professionally, even more so by people who continue with the old methods that have always seemed so completely daunting to me – one reason I gave up early on serious picture taking.

[Canavan · Rating 4 out of 5]

✭✭✭✭

[Dearwassily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is where I want to live, in these images.