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Gowin zooms in for aerial shots

What can often be categorized as the staid world of landscape photography has literally been elevated to new heights. Emmet Gowin, a renowned photographer and University professor, has recently revealed an incredible aerial series that is currently on display at the Art Museum. A significant shift from his past focus on human subjects, the exhibit is a collection of over ten years of images from sites around the world . Each photo catches the eye with an array of mesmerizing boundaries, an interplay of depths and an abundance of tone and texture.

Gowin has come far from his original belief that if a photograph doesn't have people in it, it can't appeal to human emotion. He takes the viewer with him in this revelation. Predominately in black and white photography, often an absence of human subjects precludes a passionate response. Environmental photography such as the aesthetically pleasing Ansel Adams posters that paper Princeton dorm rooms tend to become repetitive and stagnant. Although the walls of this show exhibit landscapes devoid of people, they still exude a sense of originality and human emotion. With innovative perspectives, Gowin has successfully explored the young realm of artistic aerial photography.

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In an address last Wednesday, audience members asked Gowin about his recent transition and artistic experience.

When did you switch to landscapes? Change is always happening, it's yourself who's the last one to find out.

Why do you find so much feeling and intrigue in landscapes?

It's the place that we live.

Gowin takes his work beyond this philosophy. So many of his pieces are ridden with lines that speak the contemplation and fluidity of a brush stroke. But no brush is used other than the disturbing winds and rain. The creators of these lines range from heavy machinery to burrowing ants. This leads to levels of social and emotional implication within these landscapes. What at first glance invokes stirring elegance reveals itself as the quite desolation of an abandoned nuclear test site. In most cases, closer inspection is only prompted by the titles. This abstractionism gives the viewer a great degree of interpretive freedom and provides a handful of his photographs the appearance of paintings.

How much Abstractionism have you looked at?

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Remember when we're looking at this, the landscapes were there before abstraction was there to parallel them. I wanted to be a painter, but not an abstract painter. I like Mondrian, but mostly because of his familiarity. His work has grown into a richness in my heart. More than that, I love looking at photographs, not knowing what they are and working within that.

Why do you tone your photographs, introducing new hues and accentuating contrasts.

Some pieces were so sad and disappointing. The pictures looked interesting but were missing something – toning seemed to bring back feeling.

Do you know what you want when you take a photograph?

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If you're unsure, just take the picture. Think it through later. Often two, three, four years have gone by before I've actually discovered I've made a picture that I care about . . . I knew that the pictures were making me, it wasn't that I was so smart, but rather more like a child. I was listening.

And he listens very well. In addition to his professional work, Gowin has established himself as an inspirational teacher. If you listen to him speak about his work, you will easily understand why students rave about his class, Introduction to Photography.

Gowin himself began as a business student: "I stayed [with business] until I'd gotten the courage to allow myself to realize my passion. I'd come to the point where I felt that school was almost interfering with my education. But as long as I had a library, books, pictures and an intimate space, I was a world traveler."

What would Gowin have us take away from his exhibit? As he explains, "the pictures speak to us through a language we've known since in our mothers' womb. It's closer to a language of feeling – I can't say anything that isn't already there, instilled by the photograph."

This exhibit speaks to everyone and should not be missed, for without the viewer, a photograph is a "lonely mute experience."