The Morgan Library & Museum

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

Several times throughout the 1980s, Emmet Gowin and his wife Edith visited Petra, Jordan, the capital of the Nabataean kingdom, founded in the fourth century, BC. Gowin wrote that “Petra . . . connected with me . . . like something that I had seen in my father’s Bible, something I had always known. . . . The life that has been lived before us.”

See more of Gowin's stunning photographs paired with gems from the Morgan's collections in "Hidden Likeness: Photographer Emmet Gowin at the Morgan" on view through September 20: bit.ly/EmmetGowin

Emmet Gowin, "Tomb, Petra, Jordan, 1982." Unique gold-toned gelatin silver print. Collection of Emmet and Edith Gowin. © Emmet and Edith Gowin, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery.