Emmet Gowin Changing the Earth: Aerial Photographs. - book review

Whole Earth, Winter, 2002

Jock Reynolds, et al; 2002; 161 pp. $45 Yale University Press

Drawing from locations in the American West (notably the Nevada Test Site) and Midwest, as well as the Czech Republic, Japan, and Kuwait, Emmet Gowin's aerial photographs offer arresting visions of how we've changed the Earth for our needs: developing weapons, digging for metals, growing food, making power, The images grip with beauty and stun with evidence of injury, like lovely nudes of abuse victims. First the allure, then the recoil, and much later the dawning awareness of complicity.

This book, the catalog for an exhibition that will tour the US for the next several years, is a fine consolation to those unable to see the prints in person. On the page the photographs have generous white space. Many facing panels are empty, allowing even stronger impact. The black-and-white images are hand-toned to an ethereal warmth, heightening the sense of non-ordinary reality already suggested by their lofty vantage points.

--AH