Born 1941

Emmet Gowin is a renowned American photographer who was born in Danville, Virginia.

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 photographers Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind.

Gowin first gained attention with his intimate portraits of his wife, Edith and family. His almost exclusive use of a large format camera led to both optical and darkroom experiments. Gowin received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1977, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in 1979, and Pew Fellowships in the Arts in 1994. He retired from teaching at Princeton University at the end of 2009 and currently resides in Pennsylvania with his wife Edith.