SEATTLE.- The Henry Art Gallery closes the exhibition Emmet Gowin: Changing the Earth on October 31, 2004. Long recognized as one of America's leading photographers, Emmet Gowin's toned black-and-white aerial photographs are witness to how vast humankind has scarred the earth's surface including missile test sites, disposal facilities, and mines. Discussing this complex body of images, he will also tell the story of this recording of the devastation after the eruption of Mt. Saint Helens. A reception and book-signing will follow.

Emmet Gowin took his first aerial photographs in 1980, when commissioned by the Seattle Arts Commission to document the devastation caused by the massive eruption of Mount St. Helens. From an airplane, he recorded the volcanic aftermath using a motorized Hasselblad camera (the model developed to record NASA space flights). Selections from this series are included in the Henry Art Gallery's presentation of this exhibition, on loan to the Henry from the City of Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs. These pivotal works galvanized his relationship with the Northwest. As a result of this project, Gowin became interested in documenting human activities that change the natural environment.

Accompanying the exhibition is a catalogue published by Yale University Press, featuring 92 black-and-white photographs. The catalogue, which will be available for sale at the lecture, includes essays by Jock Reynolds, exhibition curator and The Henry J. Heinz II Director of the Yale University Art Gallery, and Terry Tempest Williams, a noted nature writer and environmental activist.