Thank you, that is a very insightful post.
I remember finding the New Topographic work when I was an undergraduate photography student. It was both brilliant and beautiful in it's own way, unlike anything I had ever seen up to that time. It did feel like a big release and return to the "real" world after AA, Weston, et. al.'s idealized vision of the west that never really existed (though I liked his/ their work at the time, including Plowden too, etc.)
I have always admired Gohlke, along with Robert Adams, and a number of others from that group. They are precusrsors to some of our strongest western LF photographers of today, like Mark Klett.
I have to say, though, that I am not particularily interested in/attracted to the images on his site. They may just be complex to compress to a small jpeg, etc.
I would recommend finding his books and judging based on what you see there. I could not see a good history of western LF/landscape photography from the 1880's to the 1980's being written without Gohlke.
Best,
Michael
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