“WE HAD OUR BEGINNINGS IN THE DREAMS OF STARS”: EMMET GOWIN’S PHOTOGRAPHS, SIGNED BY HIM

GOWIN, Emmet. Photographs. (Philadelphia): Philadelphia Museum of Art, (1990). Oblong quarto, original stiff paper wrappers. $950.

First edition, signed by Gowin on the title page, with 104 striking photographs.

“First known for his pictures of his wife Edith and family in Danville, Virginia, Gowin started experimenting, about 1970, with a circular lens, whose strange perspectives transformed everyday portraits into romantic, almost ritual images. Seen in this way, fish, his wife’s necklace, and even a child’s dance costume became mysteries steeped in blackness or bathed in light. Deeply influenced by Frederick Sommer, Gowin, at his best, uses the transforming properties of the camera to, as James Agee said, ‘perceive simply the cruel radiance of what is” (Frizot, 676). This volume was produced to coincide with an exhibit of Gowin’s work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and includes much of Gowin’s most famous works: portraits of his wife, aerial shots of agricultural and environmental scenes (particularly the aftermath of Mount St. Helens’ eruption), the Ruins of Petra, among other series. See Roth, 172. See Parr & Badger 2:220.

A fine copy.