ELIJAH GOWIN

Elijah Gowin is an acclaimed American photographer and educator whose work explores ritual, landscape, memory, and the human experience of spiritual and physical transition. Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1967, Gowin earned a B.A. in Art History from Davidson College and an M.F.A. in Photography from the University of New Mexico.

Working across traditional and experimental photographic processes, Gowin combines hand-crafted techniques with digital imaging and found imagery to create photographs that often occupy a space between dream, memory, and lived experience. His celebrated bodies of work include Hymnal of Dreams, Of Falling and Floating, Into the Sun, Watering, and The Last Firefly.

Gowin received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008, along with grants from the Charlotte Street Foundation and Puffin Foundation. He is the author of several photography books and founded Tin Roof Press, which publishes art and photography. His work is held in major collections including the National Gallery of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Center for Creative Photography.

Gowin is currently Professor and Chair in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, where he directs photographic studies. He is represented by Robert Mann Gallery in New York.

EMMET and EDITH GOWIN

Emmet and Edith Gowin share one of the most enduring creative partnerships in American photography. Emmet Gowin (b. 1941) is renowned for intimate black-and-white photographs of Edith, her family, and their children, as well as for his later aerial studies of landscapes transformed by human activity. Born in Danville, Virginia, Gowin studied at the Richmond Professional Institute and earned his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, where he worked with photographer Harry Callahan. He joined Princeton University’s faculty in 1973 and taught photography there for more than 35 years. His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Edith Morris Gowin has been far more than the subject of Emmet’s photographs: she has been his lifelong partner, collaborator, muse, and a central presence in his artistic vision. The couple met in 1960 and married in 1964; Emmet began photographing Edith almost immediately. Their relationship became the foundation for an extraordinary body of work spanning more than six decades, with photographs that explore intimacy, family, aging, love, and the passage of time.

Together, the Gowins represent a remarkable intersection of photography, partnership, and lived experience.

ABOUT HARVEY MILK PHOTO CENTER

50 Scott St, San Francisco, CA 94117
Get directions HERE

The 2026 PhotoAlliance Portfolio Review will be held at the Harvey Milk Photo Center, located on the bottom floor of 50 Scott Street, a building shared with the Harvey Milk Center for the Arts. The entrance to the Photo Center faces Duboce Park, facing east. If you approach from the west (Divisadero, Scott streets), you can take the ramp or stairs on north and south sides of the building respectively.

Established in 1940, the Harvey Milk Photo Center has been serving the San Francisco community for over eight decades. As the oldest and largest community wet darkroom in the United States, they are proud to be associated with and managed by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department. Their offerings extend to a full digital lab, available to their members. The Photo Center has been at 50 Scott Street in San Francisco since 1954, within Duboce Park on the lower level of the Harvey Milk Center for the Arts building.

Sandy's is a New Orleans-inspired muffuletta shop at 1457 Haight Street in the heart of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Founded by New Orleans native Peterson Harter, Sandy's has built a loyal community on one of San Francisco's most iconic streets — one sandwich at a time. Our muffulettas are stacked high with imported soppressata, mortadella, prosciutto, and provolone, finished with a spicy olive spread and baked on sesame bread. Named #23 in the San Francisco Chronicle's Top 100 Bay Area Restaurants, Sandy's is more than a sandwich shop — it's a gathering place that celebrates the pleasures of good food and good company.