The Wild Apples of Kazakhstan – Frank Gohlke

On Thursday, February 20, UA photo professor Frank Gohlke will give a talk about his current project, a study of wild apple forests in Kazakhstan, funded by a Fulbright Scholar Research Grant. Gohlke’s apple passion dates back 40 years to a commencement address delivered by the late John Szarkowski to the graduating class of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Gohlke’s fascination grew during a three-year stay in Middlebury, Vermont, where he first experienced apple cider fresh from a press. “Apples” by Frank Browning (North Point Press, 1998), introduced Gohlke to the wild apple forests of Kazakhstan, from which domesticated apples grown across the world are derived.

Gohlke’s lecture will include photographs of earlier projects that presage aspects of the Kazakhstan work, and a group of images made since December 2013 in the first stage of the current project.