New Topographics was a group of American photographers made by William Jenkins in 1975 (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape.
Many of the photographers associated with The New Topographics were inspired by the man-made subjects such as parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development.
The new topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
Lewis Baltz a visual artist and photographer who was born in 1945 in California. After studying at San Francisco Art Institute he worked as freelance photographer and taught photography to students.His work has been included in major exhibitions, including New Topographic at the George Eastman House in 1975 and Mirrors and Windows at the Museum of Modern Art in 1978. Since the mid 1980’s he has been based in Europe and traveling a lot taking photos everywhere he goes.
Lewis Baltz produces photographs in series focused on a particular theme or geographic area and usually publishes them in the form of a book. His work, like that of others associated with the New Topographic, challenges the nineteenth century tradition of western landscape photography represented by people like Ansel Adams by presenting a less innocent view of the landscape.
South Corner, Riccar America, 3184 Pullman, Costa Mesa”, 1974, silver print, printed ca. 1974, 5 15/16” x 8 15/16
Technical: from the photography I can tell that natural lighting was used and it was probably a cloudy day, i can tell this from the bright but soft light and the absence of sharp shadows. A wide angle or regular lens would have been used to take this photo and to help get this much of the building in the frame. The image has a large depth of field which makes everything at a distance from the lens sharply in focus. I think a short exposure would have been used to get such a sharp image and to capture the dark tones.
Visual: It is a black and white Photograph which has a high contrast with an equal amount of light and dark areas. The image is separated by different shades of grey in geometric shapes, these are split up using texture from the empty flower bed in the centre of the image. the bottom of the image has more dark shades whilst the top half contrasts with this with bright almost white shades. the corner of the building is centred to the middle of the image with lines going out towards the outer edges of the image
Contextual: towards the end of the 1960s the rapid development of the American postwar decades began to take a toll on the environment. In November 1971, the newly created Environmental Protection Agency announced a massive photo documentary project, called DOCUMERICA, which recorded the adverse effects of modern life on the environment. More than 100 photographers were hired not only to document specific issues, but to capture images showing how we interacted with the environment. By 1974, more than 80,000 photographs had been produced.
Conceptual: his work focused on searching for beauty in desolation and destruction, his images show the architecture of the human landscape, officers, factories, and car parks. the idea of his photos are is to show the control, power and influence which human have on nature and nature consequently has on us. In this image we can see a large building with simple characteristics. the flower bed in the image was made by human in intention for life to live in amongst urban areas however as we can see this image there is no sign of life which could lead us to believe that humans power over nature is weak and that we can not control it.
Concept: After researching romanticism in natural landscapes and the photographer Edward weston I am going to take inspiration from the style of their work and apply it to my own photos.
Location: I am going to take photos in on the sand dunes where the is a range of natural settings I can make use off such as a large pond and trees.
Lighting: I will use natural lighting to take these photos and i will take them in the afternoon to avoid over exposed images with light flares.
Camera settings: I will take the photos using the manual expose setting and the manual focus setting on my lens so i can change them both for each photo to get the best quality.
Born on the 24th of march 1886, in Highland Park, Illinois Edward Weston spent most his time in Chicago. At the age of sixteen be begun to take photos after his father got him a bulls eye 2 camera he took photos of the parks of Chicago. His first photo was published in 1906 and after this he moved to California and worked as a surveyor. After this he spent time as an itinerant photographer traveling door to door photographing anything of interest. The combination of Weston’s stark objectivity and his love of nature and form gave his still files, portraits and landscapes, qualities that seemed particularly suited for expressing the new American lifestyle and aesthetic that emerged from California and the West between the two world wars. in 1932 he joined a group along with Ansel Adems, Imogen Cunningham and other photographers called f/64, the group worked together to create an exhibition.
Dunes, Oceano, 1936 (47SO)
Textual: This photo has been taken with natural lighting due to it being a natural landscape, there are some very dark shadows which suggest the sun was bright and high in the sky. The image has a very high contrast however most of the photo is a light grey colour. which helps the texture stand out.
Visual: It is a black and white photo which is relatively bright however does have some highlighted and shadowed areas. the texture in the sand in the foreground is detailed and shows a pattern, however as you go up and towards the mid ground the imaged the patterns become more fine and hard to see. Each layer of the dune looks different which helps them stand out and look different. The image is full of lines, for example at the top of each dune there is a shadow which helps define it and creates depth in the image.
Romanticism refers to a new mindset and way of feeling which came about in Europe at the end of the 18th century in the work of artists, poets and philosophers. the idea soon spread allover the world and changed how people look at nature, children, love and work. The romantic movement was a reaction or rebellion against the industrial revolution when people started to feel that emotion was being taken away from the arts. this idea translated into art via the use of nature, artists would paint great landscape scenes which would often include people or animals in the distance helping to emphasis the greatness of nature. Translates into photography romanticism is shown in natural landscapes which look huge or continuous and show the greatness of nature, aimed to spark emotion in the viewer
For hidden Identity I wanted to use the images I had taken and cover my models face to hide her identity , this was because each person has a unique face which helps us identify them and tell them apart from other people. On the news when they don’t have permission or need to hide a persons face they pixelate it, I took this idea for my own photos and using Photoshop I selected certain areas of her face such as her eyes which are often known and the window to the soul. I then experimented with the colours and saturation of the pixels so it stood out more however i think this takes away from the neutral colours in the original image.
I chose this image for my A5 print because I like how simple it is, it has a very neutral colour scheme. compared to the rest of the edits I did in this style I think this looks the best because it doesn’t look her edited. I also like it because it clearly shows the idea of hidden identity . It links to my artist reference because of how I have covered parts of the image in which my model has insecurities.
For my A4 edit I used the distort and wave setting, I wanted to imitate the look of the water in Laurence Demaison’s work.
For my A3 final print I chose this set of images showing rascal identity. I used the colours from each models skin and made a square in the same colour. I did this to show how
Laurence Demaison is a french photographer born in 1965. She spent most her early life training to be an architect and completed formal training in 1988. after this she became interested in photography and started making self portraits. she was self taught and enjoyed how photography could free her from using words, and made it possible for her to express herself. this is the reason for her using herself as a model because she didn’t need to direct anyone to show her vision. She would conceal, modify and destroy parts of the image using interesting techniques such as smoke, water and long exposures which often created a eary atmosphere. she manipulation of images is done when the photo is taken and not in post prediction.
I want to study this photographer for my final identity shoot because of the way she conceals and changes the identity of herself in the images. we can still tell there is a person in all of her images however they have been worpped in different ways. Although most of her images are self portraits I want adapt her idea and use her style but I will take photos of other people so I have more control over them. none of her images are edited after they are all appear as they were taken. I will try to take my photos in her original style however I will also develop it and try to create some using modern editing methods.
Technical: the lighting is this photo is very focuses on the smoke which is closer to the lens, the background is shadowed and blurred however there is enough light for us to see the shape of a human figure. From this we are lead to think that the lighting is controlled and that this photo was taken in a studio set up. Although the detailed smoke is what our eyes first see the blurred figure pulls our focus through this and makes us inquisitive about the person. A fast shutter speed would have been used to capture the smoke in action. This is a black and white image however it has a high contrast between the black background and bright smoke.
Visual: The textures and pattern in the smoke are exaggerated by the blurred background and although it is very simple his image is very effective. The shape of the smoke perfectly covers the face and frames the mouth.
Conceptual: instead of using a model she preferred to use herself as the model so that her artistic image could be presented exactly how she wanted it. although she enjoyed this she struggled to confront the image of her own body. Rather than portraying her body as it was, she sought to conceal, modify, even destroy it and reconstruct it in a form more acceptable to her. The result is a series of self-portraits which expertly use the reflective and distortive qualities of her materials along with the shadowy effects of light and negative images to create “paper phantoms”, ghosts of herself that are there, yet disappear in an instant.
Her struggles with self acceptance links in with the theme of identity and is one reason why people may chose to conceal or change their true self.
Tableau photography often know as tableau vivant (french for living picture) is a style of photography or art which shows a set up scene of people in a over dramatized location. Actors wear costumes to fit the scene and stand in a frozen position to imitate a moment frozen in time. dramatic lighting is often used to emphasis certain parts and to create different atmospheres. They often consist of scenes frozen in time and are commonly set to look as though they were in a different era.
a variety of tableau photo taken by various photographerstableau vivant photograph by Ryan Schude
Self Portrait:
A self portrait is a painting,drawing, sculpture or photograph of the person who made it,
Self portrait painted by Van Gogh.self portrait photos taken by Vivian Maier all of his reflection in different locations.
when I hear the word identity I instantly think of visuals, a passport picture for example which clearly shows a persons information and formal identity. however a persons identity can be much more than this, it could include their past or life experiences. people can change or hide their true identity for many reasons such as self doubt or the pressure of society. i am interested in the visual side of identity for part of this project because i think it is so relevant in modern culture. people often change what they look like due to idealistic expectation and in a world where looks mean so much no wonder there are problems. stereotyping can also link to this idea of identity in the sense of nationality, we assume so much about people from their looks. I think this is an interesting area to focus my photography on because it is so versatile yet extremely relevant.
Concept: After looking at how Rankin take his photos in a studio I am going to have a go at it myself. I want to start by taking simple portraits so i can get used to the studio set up and all the equipment.
Location: I am going to take photos in the school studio using a white background. this location will allow me to completely control the lighting and look of the photos.
Lighting: I will test out different lighting setups so i can get used to the effect each of them can give. In the studio there is a soft box which can be used to get an even spread of light with minimal shadows. I will also use different spot lights with shutters to cast dark shadows on parts of the models face. I also want to test out the automatic wireless flash.
Camera settings: I will take the photos using the manual expose setting and the manual focus setting on my lens so i can change them both for each photo to get the best quality.
Model/props: I will need a model for these portraits and i will also need coloured filters to do over the lights to create different effects.
For my final selection I choose a range of photos from the shoot. The first photo I took with a red filter over the light, other than than the exposure and contrast this image didn’t need any adjusting.
The next two photos I changed to black and white and upped the contrast, I did this to enhance her features and make the image more striking. I put two similar photos from this shoot which i edited the same in a series.
For the final image I edited I changed the colour from red to a pink colour, I chose this image because of the dark shadowed areas which contrast with the bright pink.
Best Images From Shoot:
I chose this image for my A5 print because I like how simple it is, it has a very neutral colour scheme. compared to the rest of the edits I did in this style I think this looks the best because it doesn’t look her edited. I also like it because it clearly shows the idea of hidden identity . It links to my artist reference because of how I have covered parts of the image in which my model has insecurities.
For my A4 edit I used the distort and wave setting, I wanted to imitate the look of the water in Laurence Demaison’s work.
For my A3 final print I chose this set of images showing rascal identity. I used the colours from each models skin and made a square in the same colour. I did this to show how 
For the final image I edited I changed the colour from red to a pink colour, I chose this image because of the dark shadowed areas which contrast with the bright pink.