On View: David Plowden's Iowa

On view May 5 – September 27, 2026

David Plowden’s Iowa series, on loan from Humanities Iowa, takes a sharp and expansive view of Iowa’s rural communities and agricultural landscapes, including barns, grain elevators, rail lines, businesses, highways, and the remains of once-busy towns. Since Plowden rarely captures any of the people or communities who live in these towns, the images feel both familiar and slightly estranged. Plowden doesn’t editorialize. He doesn’t frame his subjects with nostalgia or critique. He sees what is there and photographs it with a kind of quiet conviction. The 64 photographs in the series create a portrait of Iowa that’s plainspoken, layered, and a little uncanny. You get the sense that change is not the same as progress. The exhibition is one person’s history of a place; but it’s also about how we look—what we notice, what we overlook, and what lingers after we leave.

Sherman Township, 2004
image courtesy of the artist