Emmet Gowin (born 1941 in Danville, Virginia) is an American photographer. After graduating from Richmond Professional Institute (now Virginia Commonwealth University) in 1965, Gowin attended the Rhode Island School of Design. While earning his MFA, Gowin studied under influential American photographer Harry Callahan.
Gowin first gained attention with his intimate portraits of his wife and family. Using a 4x5 lens with an 8x10 camera allowed Gowin to expose the full image circle, surrounded by a dramatic vignette, in his family portraits and rural landscapes. Beginning with a trip to Washington State soon after Mt. Saint Helens erupted, Gowin began taking aerial photographs. For the next twenty years, Gowin captured strip mining sites, nuclear testing fields, large-scale agricultural fields and other scars in the natural landscape.
A recipient of a Guggenheim (1974) and two NEA Fellowships (1977 and 1979), he has also received awards from the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (1983), the Seattle Arts Commission (1980), the 1983 Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts from the State of Pennsylvania, the 1992 Friends of Photography Peer Award, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts for 1993-94. Gowin received the President's Award for Distinguished Teaching at Princeton University in 1997 and the Behrman Award in 2006.
