Here on Earth Now – Notes from the Field, a selection of photographs from American photographer Emmet Gowin’s nearly 20-year exploration of the tropical environment is currently on view at Pace/MacGill Gallery in New York and features forest landscapes, portraits of his wife, Edith, and typological studies of nocturnal moths executed as unique salt and digital inkjet prints.
For six decades, Emmet Gowin has contemplated humanity’s relationship to the natural world with visual wonderment. His pictures have evolved from intimate portraits of his Virginia family, to aerial vistas of volcanic devastation and nuclear test sites, to scientific surveys of tropical ecosystems and their dependent biodiversity. Though varied, Gowin’s subjects remain united by a celebration of place and are permeated by the enduring presence — whether literal or figurative — of his wife and muse, Edith. The featured images are therefore a natural continuation of his earlier work, Mariposas Nocturnas – Edith in Panama, presented by Pace/MacGill as both an exhibition and catalogue in 2006, as well as a companion to Gowin’s recent monograph, Mariposas Nocturnas: Moths of Central and South America, A Study in Beauty and Diversity, published by Princeton University Press this fall.
Inspired by the literature of 19th-century naturalists like J. Henri Fabre and Alfred Russel Wallace, Gowin has been engaged in an extensive photographic portrait of the mariposas nocturnas or nocturnal moths of Central and South America for over 15 years. Seeking to create a work of art that honored the richness of species and complexity of the tropics, he traveled to Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, and Panama to carefully catalogue the inherent beauty of over 1,000 insects. The moths — presented in typological grids of 25 — are photographed fully alive, in innate positions and postures, against visually resonant backgrounds drawn from art historical imagery and the natural world. Once again, Gowin’s work fosters awareness of, and perhaps even affection for, the splendor found in the often-overlooked elements of our environment. Gowin writes: “Over time, I have begun to see the moth as a living wonder: visually stunning, endlessly varied, mysterious, sometimes useful, sometimes destructive, hard-working, biologically inventive, and nothing less than a miracle real beauty, here on Earth now, and, of course, impossible without the forest.”
Emmet Gowin, Here on Earth Now – Notes from the Field
September 28, 2017 through January 6, 2018
Pace/MacGill Gallery
32 E 57th St
New York, NY 10022
USA
