The New Topographics 

The new topographic was a phrase to describe a group of American based photographers who were inspired by man made environments.Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity.

“New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” was an exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography. The show was curated by William Jenkins at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House (Rochester, New York), and remained open to the public from October 1975 until February 1976. The photographers featured in this exhibition where; Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel, Jr. The  German couple, Bernd and Hilla Becher, were also invited to the exhibition, who was then teaching at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf in Germany.

What was the new topographic a reaction to?

The movement was a reaction to the works similar the works of Ansel Adams which was portraying beautiful scenic landscapes which have seemingly have been untouched by humans. The group wanted to highlight that most of the world was not like this and once beautiful areas had become wastelands for mankind.