The New Topographics
New topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (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 landscapes. The photographers associated with new topographics were inspired by the man-made surroundings, selecting subject matter that was all around. The collection includes photos from car parks, suburban housing and warehouses. These photos risen in response to the new postwar extensions.
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz documents the changing American landscape of the 1970s in his series, “New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California.” The project’s 51 pictures depict structural details, walls at mid-distance, offices, and car parks of industrial parks. Contrast and geometry are important in these pictures, but what marks them as uniform is Baltz’s attention to surface texture and lifeless subject matter. Often displayed in a grid format, it is important to Baltz that his pictures be seen collectively as a group or series. The series format suits his desire that no one image be taken as more true or significant than another, encouraging the viewer to consider not just the pictures but everything outside of the frame as well, emphasizing the monotony of the man-made environment. The pictures themselves resist any single point of focus, framed as they are to present the scene as a whole without bringing attention to any particular element within.
Lewis Baltz was born in Newport Beach, California in 1945. He holds a BFA from San Francisco Art institute (1969) and an MFA from Claremont Graduate School (1971). Baltz was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant in 1973 and a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in 1977. He has exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His work is in the collections of numerous institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; and the Art Institute of Chicago.
image analysis
This photograph ‘In the Desert’ by Lewis Baltz, is apart of a collection of photos consisting of black-and-white photographs that Baltz took of construction sites and abandoned areas in the northern Nevada desert region between 1977 and 1986. This black and white photo perfectly demonstrates the growth and development of landscapes shifting from nature having control of the plain to man made objects being planted onto those plains.
At first look, the contrast between the dark cables and the light desert ground is very intense. This helps emphasise the cables in the foreground, showing the viewer that the change happening in America is inevitable. However, after looking for longer, i see more industrialised objects in the background. Perhaps trucks or shacks. These blurred objects secretly support the new topographics as its showing the viewer that there are changes happening all around, not just the work that the cables imply.
The natural lighting causes little to no shadows cast over the image, this makes the background more solid, helping emphasise the contrast between the ground and the grass.
