Tuesday, October 12
Interview on Iowa Public Radio at 12:00 PM
Book signing at Prairie Light Books at 6:00 PM

Wednesday, October 13
Council Bluffs Public Library for a presentation, slide show, and book signing at 6:00 PM
Council Bluffs Public Library
400 Willow Ave
Council Bluffs, IA 51503

Thursday, October 14
Western Iowa Tech Community College for a presentation, slide show, and book signing at 6:00 PM
Western Iowa Tech Community College
4647 Stone Ave
Sioux City, IA 51106

In conjunction with the release of photographer David Plowden’s newest book, Requiem for Steam (a tribute to the age of the steam locomotive), the Center for Railroad Photography and Art will circulate a traveling exhibition of the same name featuring thirty of the book’s black-and-white inkjet prints.

The exhibition will open at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento in October. David Plowden will present a lecture there about his railroad photography and sign books on Saturday, November 6.

The Center will host a reception at CSRM on Thursday evening, November 4

Will be published by W.W. Norton October 9, 2010.

The Book Stall at Chestnut Court and I will be hosting a book signing on October 9, 2010 4:30.
click here to see more photos…

FROM THE JACKET: As a child, David Plowden was given an inexpensive box camera and before long he began to photograph railroad trains. As he matured and started on what would become a lifetime in photography, trains — specifically steam locomotives — continued to be one of his passions. But by the beginning of the 1960s they were eclipsed by diesel engines; the steam era had ended.

It is our good fortune that Plowden was passionate about trains. For years he photographed not only the locomotives but all facets of the railroad world, from long steam-powered freight trains crisscrossing middle America to the yards, small stations, and industrial settings that are synonymous with trains. While his photographic love affair with America, and in particular the mid-West where he lives, resulted in many books and exhibitions of his beautiful docu- mentary photographs, he never lost sight of the railroads, where his work would result in the images presented in this book, a reverent tribute and requiem for the era of steam.

David Plowden is the author of more than twenty photography books, including Vanishing Point: Fifty Years of Photography, published by Norton. As a young man out of college he worked on the Great Northern Railroad in Minnesota, and when the opportunity presented itself, he photographed trains. Later, as he became increasingly well known in the world of photography, he continued to document the railroad world but it was not the same. The exhilaration of a steam locomotive thundering down the track was gone. It lives on in this book.

Completed work on Requiem for Steam and sent the completed work to publisher.

From July through the end of November I have been editing, scanning, and writing text for the new book Requiem for Steam, which is scheduled to bepublish in 2010

Saulk County, more work  for the new book to be published by W.W. Norton in 2012

Jefferson County Iowa, photographed interiors for a new book to be published by W.W. Norton in 2011.

David Plowden: Vanishing Point – Fifty Years of Photography
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton (October, 2007)
ISBN-10: 0393062546
ISBN-13: 978-0393062540

A Handful of Dust: Photographs of Disappearing America
Hardcover: 128 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton (May, 2006)
ISBN: 0393060330

Bridges: The Spans of North America
Hardcover: 328 pages
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company;
Revised edition (November, 2001)
ISBN: 0393050564
Product Dimensions: 12.0 x 10.5 x 1.5 inches

The American Barn
Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company;
1st edition (November, 2003)
ISBN: 0393025578
Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 11.8 x 0.8 inches

Imprints: David Plowden : A Retrospective
Hardcover: 203 pages
Publisher: Little Brown and Company (September 1, 1997)
ISBN: 0821223232
Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 10.2 x 11.5 inches

Small Town America
Hardcover: 159 pages
Publisher: Harry N Abrams (April 1, 1994)
ISBN: 0810938421
Product Dimensions: 1.0 x 1.1 x 11.5 inches