David Plowden, a renowned American photographer known for his evocative documentation of the nation’s industrial and rural landscapes, died on May 4 at a retirement community in Evanston, Illinois. He was 93. His wife, Sandra Plowden, attributed the cause to a heart attack.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Plowden established himself as a chronicler of America’s vanishing industrial heritage, capturing the fading steam engines, steel mills, and rural farm structures that once formed the backbone of the country’s economy and culture. His work often reflected a deep nostalgia for an era on the brink of disappearance, as manufacturing shifted overseas and industries became increasingly automated.

Born in Boston on October 9, 1932, Plowden was the eldest of two children in a family with ties to the arts; his father, Roger Plowden, was a British-born actor and set designer, and his mother, Mary Butler Plowden, was a skilled pianist. Relocating to Manhattan’s Upper East Side at age six, Plowden was captivated early on by the passage of tugboats and steamships along the East River—a fascination that would later influence his photography. Summers spent on a family farm in Putney, Vermont, and his education at the Putney School fostered his early development in photography. After earning a degree in economics from Yale in 1955, Plowden shifted his focus to photography, studying under Minor White at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Plowden’s photographic style was defined by what he termed “straight photography”—eschewing manipulation and experimental techniques in favor of carefully composed, finely lit images. This approach, described by longtime friend and historian David McCullough as deceptively “simple,” produced what McCullough called “eloquent photographs” reflecting both artistry and documentary integrity. Plowden’s admiration for industrial machinery and human labor found expression in iconic images of coal-fired locomotives, steel mills, and Great Lakes cargo vessels.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, Plowden published a series of books including “Farewell to Steam” (1966) and “Steel” (1981), through which he captured a country in transition. His expansive oeuvre also included rural America, documenting weathered barns and small family farms amid the rise of corporate retail chains. His 2013 book “Heartland: The Plains and the Prairie” underscored his commitment to portraying the authentic, smaller-scale lives he believed were increasingly overshadowed. “Wal-Mart has taken over Main Street,” Plowden told an Illinois historical society in 1996, lamenting the loss of community character.

Throughout his career, Plowden’s work was featured in major publications and is held in permanent collections at institutions such as the Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. In addition to his first marriage to Pleasance Coggeshall, which ended in divorce, he married Sandra Schoellkopf in 1977. He is survived by Sandra, their two children Philip and Karen, two sons from his first marriage, John and Daniel, as well as 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Plowden also contributed to education as a faculty member at the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology beginning in 1978. His lifelong mission was to preserve through his imagery the rapidly disappearing physical and cultural landscapes of America’s industrial and rural past.