Elijah Gowin ’90 (American, b. 1967)
Into the Sun 40, 2009
Archival pigment print
Gift of Malú Alvarez, Class of 2002
Since time immemorial, humans have recognized the sun as a creative force. We know warmth because of it. Flowers grow towards it, even the smallest ones. Fixed on a set course, our sun spins days and nights for lifetimes before and after us. But the sun is no mere timekeeper or distant gardener. It closes each day with a performance piece, tossing out sashes of color before flickering into oblivion. The sun is also cruel, scorching the very things it gives life to, including sight. Photographers in particular must be sensitive to the paradox of sunlight: it can neither be wholly excluded from a work, nor can it be directly captured. But Elijah Gowin’s artwork transgresses the rules of light. With his series Into the Sun, he participates in a photographic taboo by pointing his lens directly at the Light Source. The results are both corrosive and transformative. Robert Mann Gallery has compared Gowin’s “act that courts blindless” to the ascent of Icarus on waxen wings, an endeavor that not only showcases the fearful power of the sun but embodies the principle of motion beyond the conventional, the acceptable, the zone of comfort.
Don’t be fooled. Into the Sun 40 is no painting. The print bears the evidence of burning. Light streaks down like a face in agony. Perhaps the piece does not visually recall your understanding of the sun—however benevolent or terrible. Yet, Gowin has obtained here something more true than a reflection of a form or an acceptable likeness. His lens has experienced first-hand (and first-degree) the devastating and painterly mark making of our star.
Elijah Gowin was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1967 and received his MFA in Photography from the University of New Mexico. His photographs are in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Center for Creative Photography, among others. His awards include the John S. Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 as well as grants from the Charlotte Street Foundation and the Puffin Foundation. He founded Tin Roof Press to publish his books on art and photography including Maggie in 2009 and his monograph Of Falling and Floating in 2011. Presently, he is a Professor in the Department of Media, Art, and Design at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he directs photographic studies. Gowin is represented by Robert Mann Gallery (New York), Page Bond Gallery (Richmond, VA) and, PGI (Tokyo).
– Molly Smith ’24