Nancy Wells, Danville, Virginia

One of the most distinctive American artists working with the camera, Emmet Gowin has for the last forty-five years produced extended series of photographs on a remarkably diverse set of subjects, from his wife, Edith, and her extended family, to the aftermath of the eruption of Mount Saint Helens; rock-cut tombs in Petra, Jordan; and moths netted in nighttime Panama. Although he used a tripod for his remarkable early family photographs, Gowin wanted them to feel like informal snapshots, which he has always considered one of the richest sources of imagery. Among the artist’s most stunning family pictures is this study of his niece with her eyes shut holding two eggs, arms writhing with delight like a pair of snakes loose in the henhouse.