Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke - Hardcover

Rohrbach, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 193006666X ISBN 13: 9781930066663

Publisher: Center for American Places, 2007

Synopsis

Wind, water, and molten rock constantly tear apart and resculpt the natural world we live in, and people have always struggled to create structures that will permanently establish their existence on the land. Frank Golhke has committed his camera lens to documenting that fraught relationship between people and place, and this retrospective collection of his work by John Rohrbach reveals how people carve out their living spaces in the face of constant natural disruption. An acclaimed master of landscape photography, Golhke explores in Accommodating Nature how people configure the places where they live, work, and commune, both on an everyday level and in the aftermath of catastrophic destruction. Whether a ranch house anchored fast on an endless Texas plain, the shattered buildings and whipped trees left by a category 5 tornado, or the jagged cliffs of ash and rock created by the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens, the photographs unearth the ways in which new homes and lives emerge from the fragments of the old. Thought-provoking essays by Rebecca Solnit, Frank Gohlke, and John Rohrbach expand upon the issues raised by the images, contemplating the complexities of human and cultural geography and the relationships we have with our respective place. An arresting and vibrant visual essay combining magnificent vistas with intimate emotional detail, Accommodating Nature exposes the intricate threads that bind our lives to the land surrounding us. 

About this title

About the Author

John Rohrbach is senior curator of photographs at the Amon Carter Museum. Frank Gohlke is the Laureate Professor of Photography at the University of Arizona and the senior research fellow at the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, Arizona. He has received numerous fellowships and awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, and has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, Art Institute of Chicago, George Eastman House, Amon Carter Museum of Art, and the Museum of Contemporary Photography. 

Review

"There are precious few photographers who document the effect of nature on landscapes, both human and natural, as well as Gohlke. He has proven this time and again, and his new book, Accommodating Nature, offers a very fine guide to what he has achieved in the last 30-plus years. . . . There are 21 photographs from the Mount St. Helens series and many of them have the kind of grim majesty characteristic of the great nineteenth-century landscape photographers. . . . See the exhibition if you can, but at least be sure to look at the book." (James Kaufman Photographer's Forum 2007-12-01)

"Accommodating Nature is a stunning compellation of a life’s work. The photographs reveal how dedicated Frank Gohlke is to observing and recording the places that we, both collectively and individually, have been. Whether it's a childhood home or the aftermath of a disaster, Gohlke sensitively finds the details that define our time."

(William Wylie, University of Virginia 2007-03-06)

“Frank Gohlke has made strikingly beautiful and informative photographs for more than thirty years. Even more important, he has unfailingly worked with intelligence, restraint, high ambitions and seriousness. His commitment and manner of working—one can only call it “integrity”—have been so tremendously valuable. Accommodating Nature brings all of his work together for the first time. It is a fitting tribute to a very important photographer.”

(Bob Thall, Columbia College Chicago 2007-03-06)

Edition details

• Publisher: Center for American Places
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 193006666X
• ISBN 13: 9781930066663
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 176
• Editor: Gohlke Frank, Solnit Rebecca