What is the new topographic?

Influential movement of many artists, many of their works documented the handling and evolving of the natural landscape to be perceived as more mediated urban landscapes. New topographic  was a term colonized by William Jenkins in 1975,it was created in order to describe a group of American photographers such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, these are people whose images all had a sniper-like banal aesthetic in that they were formal,mostly black and white print of urban landscape. All the photographers within this movement were inspired by man made  subject matter; this included parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses and were all depicted with beautiful austerity.they were trying to find the beauty within man made landscape and urban areas which were not commonly at the time published.

What is the meaning of this movement?

The eroding of natural landscapes and demonstrating an unease of industrial development within the world. The movement started with an exhibition o this urban work to have a large ripple effect on the whole medium and genre of landscape photography,the wanted to emulate a spirit and atheistic throughout their world, three of the artists within this moment had such a significant impact beyond just within America they  were later  commissioned by the French government. Their work was said to capture “stopped of any artistic frills and reduce to an essentially  topographic state, conveying substantial amount is visual information but eschewing entirely the aspects of beauty,emotion and opinion.”

What is the movement a reaction to?

They wanted to present a critical eye on what American society had become and depicted urban and suburban realities under changes in a detached approach.

How has photography  responded to this moment?

There was a mass movement that evolved from natural landscapes to  capture urban cities and the underlining meaning of the people and aesthetic within this area.It shows how society was continuously changing from beautiful to man made  objects. It presents a literal movement and due to this continuation of movement and cityscape it enables the movement to continually inspire documentation.

What is the sense of beauty in the banal ugliness functional land use?

The functional land use presents an angle of pure unedited sense of beauty and a piece of art which is consciously existing within a community of people and nature.It captures a reflection of people and where they live and a sense of belonging of this importance. Every image conveys information about the area and why it is important to the people present.