Emmet Gowin began his artistic career by taking aerial photographs in 1986 when he first photographed the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens Since then Gowin has focused his eye on landscapes that have been altered by mankind.  His aerial pictures offer a unique perspective on the military test sites, missile silos, weapons storage and disposal sites, toxic-water-treatment facilities, mining operations, pivot-irrigation agriculture, off-road motor traffic, petrochemical works, and other sites that Gowin has visited in the United States, Kuwait, Japan, and the Czech Republic

Emmet Gowin (1941 - ) began photographing in 1961 at the Richmond Professional Institute, and went on to graduate at the Rhode Island School of Design. His prints have been exhibited widely at several museums and galleries throughout the US. Gowin teaches photography at Princeton University

 His books include Emmet Gowin Photographs (1976) Emmet Gowin Photographs (1966-1983) Petra (1986) and Emmet Gowin: Aerial Photographs (1997)

 America’s foremost photographers Gowin’s first subjects were taken from his own world his wife, children and extended family

"When we are young we are self conscious, we think about what people think about us. As artists, the more we think about our audience and what we are trying to present, the less, perhaps, we are in touch with the physicality of experience..." Emmet Gowin