David Plowden: The American Barn

by David Plowden

A tribute to the barn by the master documentarian of our time. As an elemental part of our landscape and our history, barns evoke childhood memories for many of us, recollections of a simpler way of life. Regardless of their size or shape, their forms follow their functions. They are honest. They are beautiful. And they are rapidly vanishing. Across the land we see abandoned farms with barns falling down, being torn down, and only occasionally being converted to other uses. As urban sprawl eats up the countryside and food-producing Goliaths put small farmers out of business, the need for old barns has diminished. For most of his life as a photographer, David Plowden has admired and photographed barns. In recent years, as their disappearance accelerated, he made it his mission to document these beautiful structures, before they too are lost. The result is this beautiful book, his hymn to the American barn. 130 duotone photographs

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

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

[Last Ranger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Haunting Vistas:

For me David Plowden's "The American Barn" was an amazing discovery! I've always been interested in photography, especially B&W scenic photography with a "minimalist" composition. I first heard of Plowden when I read an essay on him in David McCullough's "Brave Companions". I was intrigued by Plowden's philosophy and approach to photography so I decided to try one of his many books and found this one at my local library. One of the first things I discovered about his work is there are no people in them. Each frame is "about" people but does not include them in the composition. Also, for Plowden, clouds are an important part of any composition so you do see cloudy, dramatic, skys in many of his shots, but even an overcast or clear sky helps in the message he's trying to convey. Plowden's approach to any project is hands on, get out to the locations where his primary subject, barns in this case, can be found. To that end he spends a lot of time on the road, mostly in his car, so he can stop whenever he wants to look around and, if the light is just right, he just might take a picture or two. Along with this stunning collection are Plowden's Introduction, Acknowledgments and Technical Notes that provide valuable insights into the appreciation of his work, his underlaying philosophy of why he is taking these little slices of Americana. Barns are an integral part of our historical heritage and this book is a tribute to that vanishing world.

Last Ranger

[Catherine Mustread · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book containing David Plowden's stunning photographs, but due to the lesser interest I have in barns I'm only giving this 3*. Great photographs, chronicling an era of "big" family farms/barns from late 1800s to the mid 1900s. In the few pages of text included, Plowden compares his book to a poem about barns rather than an essay, in that he does not try to be all inclusive or focus on a particular era or locale.

Despite growing up in the farmland, farms and barn building have no great appeal to me and I find it hard to mourn the loss of the family farm. Many of these farms would have died long ago but were kept on life support at the expense of the American taxpayers through farm subsidies.

[Sigrun Hodne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just perfect! See more at: https://omstreifer.wordpress.com/2016...