Details

Title

Natural Drainage Systems, Near Palo Verde Nuclear Power Station, Arizona,1988

Artist/Maker

Emmet Gowin (American, born 1941)

Date

1988, printed 1991

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

9 5/8 x 9 11/16 inches

Credit

Gift of the artist in honor of Harry Callahan

Accession #

1996.142

On View

Currently not on view

Throughout his career Gowin used photography to explore the conflicts between nature and society. His interest in nuclear power began in 1986 with a trip to the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the publication of Richard Rhodes’s "The Making of the Atomic Bomb". In a time filled with threats of nuclear disaster and fears of environmental catastrophe, Gowin created images that exposed aesthetic and political concerns over the treatment of land. This photograph, which shows natural drainage systems near the newly constructed Palo Verde Nuclear Power Station, is noticeably lacking in human presence, celebrating the natural landscape instead of the manmade power station itself.

Image Copyright

© Emmet Gowin.

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