century of rampant industrialization. The latter
Missionpublished its final report in the form of a
thick volume reproducing the photographs pro-
duced by the project.
Many of Gohlke’s other projects over the follow-
ing decade echoed his DATAR work in that he
focused on a specific geographic area with the
goal of establishing its essence at a given point in
time. For example, having moved to Massachusetts
in 1987, Gohlke began an ongoing project to docu-
ment the Sudbury River 25 miles west of Boston.
The river, once the muse of American Transcen-
dentalist writers Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph
Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, was
the subject of local activism to keep it protected—
an effort that eventually (1999) led to its becoming
part of the national parks system. In 1993, Gohlke
had worked with a local art museum (the DeCor-
dova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mas-
sachusetts) and the Sudbury Valley Trustees on a
project to celebrate the untrammeled beauty of the
river. Unlike so much of his work to date, this
project focused on the potential for humans to
have a light touch in their uses of natural re-
sources—it is the chaotic order of nature that de-
fines Gohlke’s Sudbury River and its environs.
Much of Gohlke’s work in the 1990s derived from
commissions. He photographed Lake Erie for the
Gund Foundation in 1997–1998 and participated in
the National Millennium Survey in 1999–2000. As
well, he was twice invited to work in Italy. First, in
1994 he was invited to photograph theParco del
Giganteby the Province of Reggio Emilia, a project
that included both an exhibition and a catalogue.
Then in 1998 he was asked to participate in a much
larger project to photograph the industrial port of
Marghera in Venice. The organizers of this second
project selected an international roster of photogra-
phers whose approaches to the landscape differed
considerably. Gohlke’s contribution featured his sig-
nature black-and-white images of the industrial land-
scape, but also included views of non-descript
interiors of factory control rooms and office areas.
These images signal an expansion in Gohlke’s inter-
est; they spark contemplation of the impact of built
environments on humans rather than on the land-
scape, and they provoke consideration of how the
world we shape in turn shapes us.
This concern informs many of Gohlke’s more
recent projects as well—works that reflect an inter-
est in the built environment itself. He has an
ongoing series that focuses on funeral homes, for
instance, in which he studies the exteriors of this
specialized architectural form. He also has com-
pleted a project with Joel Sternfield in Queens,
New York, that includes exteriors from several dif-
ferent neighborhoods displaying both the hapha-
zard and carefully articulated patterns of urban
life. In this later work, as in all of his previous en-
deavors, Gohlke’s images require reading, unpack-
ing as he describes it, to appreciate the vital
complexity of his literate photographic output.
J. R. Stromberg
Seealso: Adams, Robert; Baltz, Lewis; Evans,
Walker; Nixon, Nicholas; Panoramic Photography;
Shore, StephenBiography
Born in Wichita Falls, Texas, 1922. Attended Davidson
College, Davidson, North Carolina (1960–1963) and the
University of Texas, Austin, where he earned his B.A. in
English literature in 1964. Graduate work in English
literature at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut,
where he received his M.A. in 1967. Studied photography
with Paul Caponigro (1967–1968) while still living in
Connecticut, where he met and was greatly influenced
by Walker Evans. Taught at Middlebury College, Mid-
dlebury, Vermont 1968–1971, founding the photography
program. From 1971 to 1987, Gohlke lived and worked
in Minneapolis, where he taught variously at the Blake
School (1973–1975), the University of Minnesota Exten-
sion, Minneapolis (1975–1979), Colorado College (1977–
1981), and Carleton College (1980). He also taught at
Yale University Graduate School (1981). In 1987, he
moved to Massachusetts; began part-time teaching at
the Massachusetts College of Art, where he is currently
Visiting Professor of Photography. John Simon Guggen-
heim Memorial Foundation Fellowships, 1975–1976 and
1984–1985; National Endowment for the Arts Photogra-
pher’s Fellowships, 1977–1978 and 1986–1987; Bush
Foundation Artist’s Fellowship, 1979–1980; McKnight
Foundation/Film in the Cities Photography Fellowship,- Lives and works in Massachusetts.
Individual Exhibitions
1975 Frank Gohlke Photographs; Amon Carter Museum,
Fort Worth, Texas
1978 Grain Elevators; Museum of Modern Art, New York,
New York and traveling
1980 University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Am-
herst, Massachusetts
1983 Mount St. Helens: Work in Progress; Museum of
Modern Art, New York, New York
1988 Landscapes from the Middle of the World, Photographs
1972–1987; Museum of Contemporary Photography,
Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois
1993 Living Water: Photographs of the Sudbury River by
Frank Gohlke; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park,
Lincoln, Massachusetts
Mt. St. Helens as a Public Landscape; Gallery of the
School of Architecture and Allied Arts, University of
Oregon, Eugene, Oregon
1994 Florida International University, Miami, FloridaGOHLKE, FRANK