Mariposas Nocturnas: Moths of Central and South America, A Study in Beauty and Diversity

Mariposas Nocturnas gathers fifteen years of Emmet Gowin's photographs of moths from Central and South American cloud forests, a late-career turn from the landscapes and family portraits that made his name.

Working with biologists in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana and Panama, Gowin photographed live moths in natural poses against backgrounds drawn from the natural world and art history, arranging them in typological grids of twenty-five to a sheet; many species had never before been photographed alive. Published by Princeton University Press in 2017 with a foreword by Terry Tempest Williams, the 144-page hardcover reproduces ninety color and two black-and-white plates at 11 x 14 inches, with an accompanying essay by Gowin on the project's collaborative and philosophical dimensions.

Gowin (born 1941) is best known for the aerial landscapes of mining sites and nuclear test grounds that occupied him for decades, and for his early portraits of his wife Edith and her family in Danville, Virginia. Mariposas Nocturnas won the 2018 PROSE Award in Popular Science and was named one of the British Journal of Photography's Best Books of 2017.