In The One Hundred Circle Farm, renowned photographer Emmet Gowin (b. 1941) presents stunning aerial images of center-pivot irrigation systems in the western and midwestern United States. This type of farming involves a method of watering crops in which equipment rotates around a centrally drilled well, creating enormous, distinct circles of irrigated land, often in the midst of dry terrain. Anyone who has taken a cross-country flight has likely seen countless acres of these iconic symbols of industrial agriculture. In this short discussion with anthropologist and National Book Award finalist Lucas Bessire, author of Running Out, Gowin offers insight into his powerful photographic survey of the impact of irrigation systems on landscape.
About the Authors
Emmet Gowin is emeritus professor of photography at Princeton University. His many books include The Nevada Test Site and Mariposas Nocturnas (both Princeton). His photographs are in collections around the world, including at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Morgan Library and Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Tokyo Museum of Art. Lucas Bessire is associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. His books include Running Out: In Search of Water on the High Plains (Princeton).