CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
Central Vermont Railway, Extra 468 North Meets Extra 472 South. Amherst, Massachusetts, 1954
One Step Ahead of the Wrecking Ball: The Best of David Plowden from the Grohmann Museum Collection
July 8–November 1, 2026
Grohmann Museum
MSOE, 1000 North Broadway | Milwaukee, WI 53202
The Grohmann Museum has had few better friends than renowned photographer David Plowden (1932-2026). We are both proud and fortunate to have him as a friend and to have hosted five exhibitions of his work. From railroads to bridges, steel to agriculture, his portraits of industry remain unparallelled in the canon of American photography.
Plowden greatly admired the Museum’s dedication to preserving and showcasing the art of industry, so much so that he gifted over 700 photographs to the permanent collection, placing us among the leading repositories of his work. He not only helped build the collection, but also taught us how light, shadow, and form come together to make a photograph of the altered landscape and other scenes of human achievement.
As he often said, he “tried like hell to stay one step ahead of the wrecking ball.” In so doing, he captured the last of the steam locomotives on the late 1950s and early ‘60s. He viewed bridges not just for their architecture, but the ways in which they connected people and the modes of production that helped shape our country. Plowden saw the vanishing steel mills of the 1970s and made it his mission to document the seismic shift from large traditional mills with their massive blast furnaces to the small specialty mills and their move to high-voltage electric arc production.
As Plowden lamented the loss of the vibrant main streets in small town America as corporate agriculture took hold, he was determined to celebrate its central role in 20th century culture. While he was captivated by the monumental industrial apparatus he so expertly framed, his photographs often returned to sociology of work and the worker, further strengthening his link the Museum and its patrons.
As fellow industrial photographer Christopher Winters wrote upon learning of Plowden’s passing: “His light shines on. Rest easy, Old Lion. Well and nobly done.”
Thank you, David. You will be dearly missed.
— from the Grohmann Museum website
Sherman Township, Calhoun County, 2004
David Plowden’s Iowa
May 4–September 27, 2026
Sioux City Art Center
225 Nebraska Street | Sioux City, IA
David Plowden’s Iowa, a series of black and white photographs shot over four decades, takes a sharp and expansive view of Iowa’s rural communities and agricultural landscapes, including barns, grain elevators, rail lines, businesses, highways, and the remains of once-busy towns. Since Plowden rarely captures any of the people who live in these towns, the images feel both familiar and slightly estranged. Plowden doesn’t editorialize. He doesn’t frame his subjects with nostalgia or critique. He sees what is there and photographs it with quiet conviction. The 64 photographs in the series create a portrait of Iowa that’s plainspoken, layered, and a little uncanny. You get the sense that change is not the same as progress. It is one person’s history of a place, but it’s also about us: what we notice, what we overlook, and what lingers after we leave.
David Plowden’s Iowa was originally organized by Humanities Iowa. Proclaimed “an American treasure” by historian David McCullough, David Plowden has produced 20 books of photos and won many prestigious awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967. The accompanying exhibition catalog contains over 70 pages of photographs, along with an introductory essay by Rima Girnius, PhD, a short biography as well as a conversation with Plowden about his work.
— by Lyle Listamann | November 18, 2025