David Plowden: Vanishing Point: Fifty Years of Photography

by Steve Edwards (Introduction), David Plowden (Photographer)

“No one has photographed America as has David Plowden. ... He is one of the great artists of our time.”―David McCullough This beautiful volume is both a tribute to and a celebration of the photographer who, more than anyone else, has given us a visual record of our mark on the land over the last half-century. David Plowden’s beautiful black-and-white images reveal his great respect for man’s ingenuity and honest work, documenting a disappearing landscape of industry, small towns, wonderful devices, and noble structures. David McCullough writes, “Plowden has produced some of the most powerful photographs we have of man-made America. He is propelled, driven, by a sense of time running out and the feeling that he must not just make a record, but confer a kind of immortality on certain aspects of American civilization before they vanish.” As Walker Evans gave us the first half of the twentieth century, David Plowden has given us the second. David Plowden: Vanishing Point represents the best of this magnificent body of work.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

280 pages, Hardcover

First published October 9, 2007

Reviews

[Milkman3367 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beauty in spareness and symmetry.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

A career retrospective of one of America's greatest photographers ... and hopefully not the last book by Plowden, though apparently he has put his camera away, unwilling to photograph anymore, though at least he's taken up computers, and is starting to digitize his negatives. This beautiful book covers most of the significant subjects of his career ... factories, steam engines, boats, small towns, rural areas, interesting characters. All black-and-white, all beautifully and poignantly shot, his photos are historical artifacts in themselves, as they capture a way of life dying away, or capturing a technology at the final moment of use. Sometimes stark, sometimes raw, never anything but beautiful, his photos speak as eloquently as his stories behind the photos.

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes disparagingly referred to as an "industrial" photographer, these beautiful but often bleak photos reminded me of Ansel Adams and Walker Evans. I loved the steam locomotives and steamships as well as the bridges and small town pictures. The steel mills were not my favorite but did make me think of our visit to the Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham AL, one of the few industrial sites to be a National Historic Lankmark. Next I plan to read Plowden's Small Town America and A Handful of Dust: Disappearing America.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

This absolutely gorgeous book of photography far exceeded my expectations. Exploring the dying industries of steam engines and widespread train travel, boat ferry routes, abandoned coal mine towns, steel factories, and small town hardware stores, Plowden gives each shot the lingering eye of someone who knows a way of life is at an end. However, the photographs never veer into a romanticization of this past. Much of this work is dirty, and it is portrayed as such, but there is a beauty in the patina of chipped paint and scarred steel.

[Chequer · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Plowden's Vanishing Point is a treat as we are given an endless supply of breathtaking photographs and some interesting and important fact about the author and his genius.

Whether the reader is a photographer or not, this book will be appreciated. Even if you're not a big fan and you turn to one photo and say, "Look, a train." There will be more that will make you say, "Wow."

The writing provides provocative and witty insight into the artist and his life while the photos capture the huge importance of a disappearing world and era. This is a book to cherish many times over.

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating book of photographs from the 1950s to 2005. The most interesting are of city scenes, small towns, grain elevators, etc., from the American midwest in the 1960s and early '70s, including some from New York State. It's curious, the assumption that we make of things being "worse" now, more litter, more dilapidation, more poverty(?) more pollution, etc., all of which were much worse in the recent past. The mundane are miraculous when photographs are done right.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I didn't really *read* this book, but I did carefully turn each page. This guy photographs America as it is, as it was, as it has been, and as it might very well stay.

My favorite series: TRAINS.

Gorgeous black and whites. Intensely moving, yet intensely simple.

[Lish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some of the most amazing photos I've ever seen. I got a chance to see them up close at a gallery a few weeks ago. Outstanding. Plowden is a bit full of himself, but with pictures like these, I guess that's allowed.

[Hapzydeco · Rating 5 out of 5]

p. 331 - Making photographs is not a matter of equipment or technical prowess. Making photographs is about seeing. Ultimately, the inspiration comes from within. ... go out, look at the world, and make photographs.

[Katherine]

Great interview with this photographer on public radio's "The Story" in July 2008; I'm eager to see the photos.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

David is a client and friend and this is an amazing culmination of his 50 years of photography. As he says, he's there with his camera right before the wrecking ball.

[Karmen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the most inspiring but interesting.