“Humanities Iowa is proud to announce the release of David Plowden’s Iowa; a capstone collection of Iowa photography from an American master. 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. His latest collection is curated from over four decades photographing our state, and offers a view of Iowa that is nostalgic yet timeless. David Plowden’s Iowa contains over 70 pages of photographs, along with an introductory essay by Rima Girnius, PhD, that  masterfully interprets Plowden’s Iowa photos and places them firmly within the context of his illustrious career. This book also includes a short biography as well as a conversation with Plowden about his work.” ( for more visit the David Plowden’s Iowa )

Dubuque Museum of Art
Artist Reception for David Plowden and Catalog Signing
Friday, February 10, 2012, 5:30-7:30 pm.

The Dubuque Museum of Art is pleased to announce that it will host renowned American photographer David Plowden for a reception and book signing event on Friday, February 10th, 2012 at the Dubuque Museum of Art.  The reception is free to the public and will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a brief program to begin at 6:00 p.m., with a book signing to follow.  Mr. Plowden will be signing copies of David Plowden’s Iowa, the exhibition catalog which accompanies his current exhibition of the same name at the Museum.  The catalog will be on sale at the Museum that evening and for the duration of the exhibition, scheduled through March 25th.

Figge Art Museum
Figge Art Museum, Davenport Iowa: May 12—August 26, 2012.

The Sioux City Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center
Betty Strong Encounter Center: September 23, 2012—January 13, 2013

Simpson College
Iowa History Center at Simpson College: February 1—May 31, 2013

Voices from the Prairie: The Annual Iowa Writers’ Celebration 2010 featuring David Plowden, essayist and renowned documentary photographer of small towns, farmlands, and steam engines. Mr. Plowden, who is at the pinnacle of his career, is the author of more than twenty photography books, including “Bridges: The Spans of North America”, “Vanishing Point: Fifty Years of Photography:”, and “Requiem for Steam”, published by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

In conjunction with the release of photographer David Plowden’s 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.

At the O. Winston Link Museum in 2012

The exhibition Requiem for Steam will be on display at the O. Winston Link Museum, Roanoke Virginia, from February 10th to May 7, 2012. Mr. Plowden will be interviewed at 7pm on Friday March 2nd and will conduct a workshop on Saturday March 3rd, 2012

Past Venues

California State Railroad Museum presented selected railroad photos from October 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010.

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.

To listen click here: Talk of Iowa with David Plowden

Listen on Iowa Public Radio’s website: http://iowapublicradio.org/single_story.php?storyid=1191.

Requiem for Steam: The Railroad Photographs of David Plowden
Hardcover: 200 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (October 9, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0393079082
ISBN-13: 978-0393079081

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