Image: Gallery view, Grohmann Museum, Milwaukee
The Grohmann Museum in Milwaukee is presenting ‘One Step Ahead of the Wrecking Ball: The Best of David Plowden from the Grohmann Museum Collection’, a selection of photographs by the American industrial photographer who died in 2026, according to the museum. The exhibition is on view in the museum’s auditorium from July 8 through November 1, 2026.
The exhibition draws from a major gift by Plowden, who gave more than 700 photographs to the Grohmann Museum’s permanent collection. The museum says the donation made it one of the leading repositories of his work and reflects Plowden’s close connection to its focus on the art of industry. The institution has hosted five exhibitions of his photographs, including earlier presentations devoted to steam railroads, bridges, steel and agriculture.
Born in 1932, Plowden developed a long-term photographic record of American industrial and working life. His subjects included railroads, bridges, steel mills and agricultural landscapes, as well as the people who worked within those environments. The Grohmann Museum describes his practice as extending beyond the depiction of machinery and structures to the sociology of work and the worker.
The exhibition’s title comes from a phrase Plowden often used to describe his approach: he “tried like hell to stay one step ahead of the wrecking ball.” That aim shaped his documentation of the final steam locomotives in the late 1950s and early 1960s, as well as industrial sites and communities undergoing rapid change. His photographs of bridges considered not only their architecture but also their role in connecting people and enabling systems of production.
Plowden also photographed the disappearance and transformation of the American steel industry. The museum highlights his record of the vanishing steel mills of the 1970s and his attention to the shift from large traditional mills, with their blast furnaces, to smaller specialty mills using high-voltage electric-arc production. His work likewise addressed the erosion of small-town main streets as corporate agriculture expanded, while continuing to recognize agriculture’s place in 20th-century American culture.
The Grohmann Museum is located at 1000 North Broadway on the Milwaukee School of Engineering campus. Its permanent collection centers on representations of human work and achievement, and its exhibition programme includes painting, sculpture and photography related to industry, labor and technology. The museum’s current gallery information lists admission at $5 for adults, $3 for students and seniors, and free entry for children under 12; hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday from noon to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. ‘One Step Ahead of the Wrecking Ball’ remains on view through November 1.
