DeCordova Collects Photographs: Recent Acquisitions
Frank Gohlke
Frank Gohlke began photographing the Sudbury River in 1989 as a means of acclimating himself to the New England landscape. The resulting large-format color photographs present the natural beauty of water, plant, and wildlife as well as evidence of human activity and intervention. Gohlke has spent the greater part of his career exploring the particular qualities of places as wide-ranging as the open plains of north Texas where he was born, the landscapes of central France and the southern United States, grain elevators in the Midwest, and Mount St. Helens in the aftermath of volcanic eruption. His photographs are informed by a finely tuned vision that reveals information and relationships often invisible to the casual observer. In recent years Gohlke has increasingly adopted an advocacy role toward the landscape. In preferring places that show the imprint of human activity, he poses questions about land and water use. The views of the river included in this exhibition show the beauty of the landscape, the changing nature of the water in different seasons, and evidence of the pollution that threatens the river. These color photographs were included in the DeCordova exhibition: Living Water: Photographs of the Sudbury River by Frank Gohlke in 1993.
