Frank Gohlke
Frank Gohlke’s photograph is unique in depicting an elementin the landscape that might not immediately be recognized as a human intervention, interjecting ambiguity between the natural and the manmade. Acequias, or irrigation canals, are a common feature of the New Mexico landscape. In the contemporary context, this photograph evokes the complicated situation of water rights in a state where they are a pressing issue.
This photograph was shown in the exhibition NewTopographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape held in 1975 at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, curated by William Jenkins. In retrospect, this exhibition is seen as marking a paradigm shift in fine-art landscape photography in the U.S., showing works that shied away from the idealized visions to focus on the landscape as an artifact influenced and shaped by humans.
SITElines.2014
Unsettled Landscapes looked at the urgencies, political conditions and historical narratives that inform the work of contemporary artists across the Americas – from Nunavut to Tierra del Fuego. Through three themes – landscape, territory, and trade – this exhibition expresses the interconnections among representations of the land, movement across the land, and economies and resources derived from the land.
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