What Is The New Topographics?

It was a term brought around by William Jenkins in 1975, this term ‘The New Topographics’ described a group of American Photographers whose photographs had a similar aesthetic, as they were formal, mainly black and white and of the urban landscape. The main photographers that are associated with the new topographics are: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon, John Scott, Stephen Shore and Henry Wessel.

These photographers focused on urban and altered lanscapes that were fixed with man made structures and buildings such as suburban housing, warehouses and parking lots set or barren bare areas of land. These structures gave the areas a open and industrial feel whilst making the alteration the main focus of the pieces. This work was a response to the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being impacted by the industrial development happening in America at the time.

Here are some examples of the new topographics’ work…

From the work that makes up The New Topographics I hope to display the idea of the contrast between natural and urban landscapes in my own work.