PHOTOGRAPHS
Gowin, Emmet
U.S. (1941 - )
Barry, Dwayne & Turkeys, Danville, Va.
1970
Gelatin silver print
5 1/2 x 6 15/16 in. (14 x 17.6 cm) image size; 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm) sheet size
Joseph and Elaine Monsen Photography Collection, gift of Joseph and Elaine Monsen and The Boeing Company
FA 97.238

In the late 1960s, Emmet Gowin achieved acclaim for a series of large-format photographs of his family, transforming them into universal symbols of family relationships. They echo spontaneity and lack of inhibition. Barry, Dwayne & Turkeys, Gainesville, Maryland showcases Gowin’s eye for the incongruous: we see the irony of two children impulsively embracing juxtaposed with two enormous turkeys and a chopping block.

“In a photograph everything matters. Not just the featured star of the picture, the subject, but a background over which you really have no control. And the emphasis here is discovery and the multitude of ways things can be deeply interrelated, and yet go unobserved.” (Emmet Gowin, Camera Arts, Dec. 1998, Jan. 1999). -- Label copy for 150 Works of Art, October 1, 2005 to February 26, 2006.