Lewis Baltz was born in Newport Beach, California, he studied at the San Francisco Art Institute. He worked as a freelance photographer in California and taught photography at various institutions, including the California Institute of the Arts and the École Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris. His work has been exhibited in New Topographics at the George Eastman House as well as in Mirrors and Windows at the Museum of Modern Art. He has been based in Europe since the mid-1980s and travels a lot.
Where – I will shoot the rural landscapes of the St Ouen Sand dunes and the Greve de Lecq woods.
What – I will look for interesting leading lines and romanticised structural elements of the landscapes.
When – imperfect weather conditions, later in the day
Why – To explore the idea of capturing the essence of romanticised landscapes
How – Narrow aperture, wide lens, small vocal length.
I settled on shooting these locations as they provide a lot of potential for exploring different viewpoints and ways of romanticizing them. The trees and dense, populated nature of the woods provides an abundance of the element of sublime, as well as a good light obstruction – drawn out shadows and gaps for light to creep in.
Alexander Apostol is a Venezuelan photographer, born in 1969, known for his fascination with the urban landscapes in the city of Caracas, which originated in the 1950s. Within some of Apostol’s photographs, he has digitally altered the buildings concealing any doors and windows in view, creating an almost lifeless looking structure of the past that would strongly juxtapose any modern day architecture.
Analysis
Alexander Apostol – 2001
This colour photograph taken by Alexander Apostol displays a decaying building placed centrally in the image, in which the doors and windows have been edited out digitally, framed by the two smaller structures on either side. Leading lines in this piece by Apostol, are created by the telephone lines that are scattered around the image, guiding the viewer’s eye horizontally across the image, and the pole that dissects the photograph through the middle. These dark wires and pole also act as a strong contrast to the off white tone of the building. It can be said that Apostol took this photograph from a straight on pedestrian viewpoint, much like many photographers involved in the New Topographic movement.
From a technical viewpoint, it appears that Apostol has depended on the midday natural light to capture this photograph, as very few shadows can be seen here. In addition, this means that the ISO used to take this image would most likely be on a low setting, in order to produce a photograph that is not over exposed. Apostol also most likely used a fast shutter speed for this piece, as there is no visible blur or motion presented in the image. Furthermore, the aperture setting used must have been low as well, due to the clouds in the background being in focus as well as the focal point of the building.
Photo-Shoot
Contact Sheets
For this photo-shoot I walked around town near the old brewery and behind the post office taking pictures of buildings showing signs of decay or abandonment, such as boarded up windows and doors, mould and rust.
Edited Images
To edit my photographs in the style of Alexander Apostol I used photoshop to increase things such as the contrast, saturation, and texture of the images. I did this to enhance the sense of decay the buildings were undergoing.
For this photo-shoot we went around the outside of school and Highlands as a class and looked for urban landscapes that could potentially work as a New Topographic image, such as mundane buildings that might intersect with any remaining nature surrounding it. Here I have highlighted the photographs I will edit in green, and crossed out the images that are either too blurry or overexposed to use, in red.
Edited Images
To edit these photographs, I used Lightroom to convert the images into black and white. Then I lowered the exposure and increased the contrast to create a larger juxtaposition between light and dark. I also lowered the highlights and white tones of most of the photographs, making sure the images were not over exposed, due to the large amount of light flooding the lens.
Final Image
I believe that this is my best edited image, taken in the style of the New Topographic movement, as it displays a mundane man made structure from a front facing, pedestrian perspective. Another way this image links to this style of urban landscape photography, is that it is composed of many leading lines that seem to dissect the image.
Frank Breuer (1963- ) is a German photographer who studied under the notable photography professor Bernhard Becher at the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf, an academy of fine arts in Germany. Breuer travelled from 2003-2004 and became a visiting lecturer on visual and environmental studies at Harvard University. Breuer’s work holds many similarities to that of the Becher’s, focusing on capturing industrial buildings, storage units, telephone poles and detached shipping trailers in barren landscapes. In Warehouses (1995), Logos (1995), and Containers (2002), Breuer captures portraits of the post-industrial, capitalist society – facades of distribution warehouses devoid of human presence, logos of commercial businesses in nondescript places, and compositions of neatly stacked shipping containers that resonate both a sense of displacement and familiarity. Breuer’s work explores these ideas of the new topographies in a continuing globalized world, I aim to take inspiration from his minimalistic images in my urban and industrial photoshoots.
Image Analysis
Frank Breuer | Mercedes | Logos 1995
This image by Frank Breuer reflects the growing industrialisation of natural landscapes in our modern world. Breuer’s composition, photographing the subject from a lower angle, portrays the logo as imposing, as if it looks down on the people below it. Additionally, the natural environment in the background and right side of the image contrasts greatly with the industrial structure that stands amongst it. I believe Breuer has captured the structure in this way to reflect the way ‘man’ rules over the natural world, interrupting and destroying it bit by bit while keeping a watchful eye over all they create. Furthermore, in the background of the photo the sky holds little to no texture, very different from the rough texture created by the trees below. It is possible that Breuer has over exposed his image slightly to form such a bright white sky. This lack of texture behind the logo allows it to stand out greater than anything else in the image, creating the main focal point- as it has no distracting background pattern or landscape. This conveys the idea that society’s main focus is money and power, people are ignoring the natural world around them as commercial business’ are putting their influence in every place possible. The negative space created by Breuer’s over exposed sky also reflects the negative impact that urbanisation is having over the entirety of nature.
Henry Wessel Jr. was an American photographer, born in 1942, best known for his black and white images, showcasing the every day life in America’s West, and his large role in the founding of the New Topographic movement. Wessel was known to always to carry his camera with him, taking photographs as he sees it, in an almost documentary like manner. These images are a result of the exploration of the crossover between nature and urbanisation in 1970s America.
Analysis
This black and white photograph, taken by Henry Wessel Jr. displays an urban landscape, towered over by the mass number of telephone wires, and palm trees. These wires act as leading lines in Wessel’s image, directing the viewers eye down towards the pristine, white buildings. It can also be said that Wessel took this image at head height, looking up, due to the shadow of him in the lower right hand corner. Furthermore, the empty space in this photograph, seen in the vacant car park in the foreground and the cloudless sky in the upper half of the image, result in the photograph having an almost eerie atmosphere. Here there is a strong contrast between light and dark, fueled by the black and white tones of the image, seen in the drastically opposing shadows in the lower left of the photograph , and the white buildings highlighted by the sun
From a technical viewpoint, it can be said that Wessel captured this photograph with the natural lighting, due to the organic shadows created by the structures in the image. In addition, because of this large amount of natural light, a low ISO setting must of been needed in order to capture a piece that is not over exposed. By looking at the focus in the foreground and the background, it appears that Wessel used a low aperture as it seems that it is evenly spread. The shutter speed setting used to capture this photograph could of been a medium to fast speed, due to the lack of movement or blur in Wessel’s piece.
Looking at this photograph, it could be argued that here Wessel was aiming to draw attention to the urbanisation of the west, as part of the New Topographic theme his images posses. This could be seen through the towering palm trees that are intruding on this concrete landscape, signifying last remainder of nature that has not been destroyed by man. Furthermore, the telephone lines could act as a representation of the confines that man-made structures have had on the free flow of nature.
This style of landscape photography, named ‘New Topographics’ by William Jenkins in 1975, is the display of urban landscapes in a formal, black and white format. Said to be founded by photographers such as Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, new topographic images usually consisted of man made structures, surrounded by the remaining nature in the area. It can be said that the intent of these photographers, was to raise awareness and concern over the destruction of the natural landscape, and the constant urbanisation of 70s America. This could be seen as a defiance of the traditional style of photography built by artists such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, aiming to show the reality of what most of the landscapes in America looked like, instead of a romanticised fraction of it.
Robert Adams
Henry Wessel Jr.
Joe Deal
Robert Adams
Frank Gohlke
John Schott
Lewis Baltz
Frank Gohlke
Henry Wessel Jr.
This movement went on to influence later photographers, some of which studied under distinguished New Topographic photographers, Bernd and Hiller Becher at the Düsseldorf School of Photography. This resulted in the images resembling similar properties of a New Topographic, and a commitment to the New Objectivity movement. These showcased photographs with a more contemporary and personal essence, whilst still retaining the formality and representation of the industrial issue.
In 1975, the exhibition titled “Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” of New Topographics epitomized a key moment and turning point in landscape photography. New topographic images strayed away from the usual conventions of landscape photography and gave way to unromanticised views of stark industrial landscapes, suburban sprawl, and everyday scenes not usually given a second glance. 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. Photographers from the exhibition such as Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Hiller Becher took inspiration from the mundane and man-made, revealing the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development. This revolutionary style of photography was both a reflection of the increasingly modernised world, and a ‘reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental’- contrasting greatly with the work of landscape photographers such as Ansel Adams.
Lewis BaltzBernd & Hilla Becher
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz (1945-2014) was an American photographer and visual artist, most famously known for his contribution to the New Topographics movement as one of the “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” exhibition’s original photographers. Growing up in southern California in the post-war years, he had witnessed at first hand the rapid urbanisation of the countryside and the relentless spread of suburbia. In his work, Baltz focused on capturing “a landscape that no one else had much interest in looking at”, photographing areas such as car-parks, tract housing, concrete walls, garages, vast industrial warehouses, metal fire escapes, anonymous buildings, all with an absence of people. Baltz described how his daily life took him “to shopping centres, and gas stations and all the other unhealthy growth that flourished beside the highway”- he has a clear aesthetic in his work, focusing on minimalism and rejecting the usual expectations of landscape photography, such as the romanticism of landscapes. His images demonstrated a stark geometric beauty, making the new homogenised America visible in a way that echoed, and criticised, the soullessness of urban planning.
Examples of Baltz’s Work
Image Analysis
Lewis Baltz | 1974 | “The new Industrial Parks near Irvine, California”
I chose to analyse this specific Lewis Baltz image due to its strong technical aspects that conform to the formal elements, while also reflecting Baltz’s views on the growing world of industrial landscapes. Firstly, I really enjoy how Baltz has captured this image with a high contrast black and white filter, whether this was a specific choice or not, the absence of colour creates a desolate atmosphere. This links to the New Topographics movement and shows Baltz’s negative opinions on the increasing urbanisation of the world. However, Baltz also wished to find the beauty in his everyday geometric surroundings, for example a static rectangular shape can be seen to the left on the door, and is repeated on the bricks, and again on the ladder- it keeps on going. The use of repetition, while aesthetically pleasing to the eye, could actually represent the uniformity of society and the landscapes we are destroying- suggesting these industrialised buildings are taking over our environment. Additionally, the geometric shapes create strong leading lines throughout this image. Particularly, the stripes of paint to the left of the photograph and the thick line created by the half-wall on the right draws the observers eye towards the ladder in the background of the image. Baltz may have wanted to highlight this aspect of his image as the ladder disappearing at the top reflects the never ending climb to save the natural world.
In addition, the natural lighting Baltz used to capture this image creates soft shadows and highlights however, there is still a big contrast between dark and light tones. The paint swatches on the left of the image move up in a gradient pattern from dark to light, becoming less uniformed as they go on. This could symbolise the destruction of nature, and how modernised buildings are slowly trampling on our environment. Overall, the tones in this image are balanced (with slight emphasis on mid-tones) which creates a muted sombre mood, possibly connoting Baltz’s feelings while taking in the landscape he has captured. In terms of space in this photograph, there is not a wide depth of field or a vast expanse of land in the background (like the work of Ansel Adams), instead the background is blocked by a manufactured wall. Moreover, the composition of this image reflects the rule of thirds with the door and paint in section one, ladder and bricks in section two and the rectangular wall structure as the third. By using this composition technique, Baltz has created a visual narrative as he guides the observers view through the image from the dark gloomy thoughts on an industrialised world, to a hopefully brighter and more optimistic future for landscapes.
My Photoshoot – Contact Sheets
Edited Images
In class this week we took our cameras around the school grounds in attempt of capturing images relating to The New Topographics. I took inspiration from Lewis Baltz during my photoshoot, focusing on photographing buildings, walls, windows and doors. I wanted to include as many geometric shapes as I could see around me in my images which became easier as the lesson went on, finding industrialised areas around the back of the sports building and down near Highlands College. I knew I wanted to edit my images with a black and white filter after the shoot, so while capturing them I saw fit to stand in specific positions looking up at/down on the landscapes in order to capture contrasting shadows and highlights that would be emphasised by the unsaturated editing. My images include several vertical and horizontal leading lines of all shapes and sizes, guiding the observer’s focus along the photo to focal points such as doors and windows. Moreover, my use of repetition within these images mirrors Baltz’s technique of showing the echoes of modern society conforming to industrialised architectural ideas. Additionally, I have reflected the concern with industrialised buildings taking over our environment by capturing tree branches in the background of a few of my images- suggesting the urbanised world is covering up the beauty of nature.
For this photoshoot I decided to use town as the setting as Gabriele Basilico shows representation of both repetitive architecture as well as unfinished industrialisation. I tried to capture both of these aspects in this photoshoot, therefore I photographed contrasting modern and more vintage buildings.
The images highlighted in red are my less successful images as they don’t clearly imitate Basilico’s work or the are taken off-centre and create a slanted affect which juxtaposes Basilico’s crisp, exact photography.
I feel like the images highlighted in green are my most successful images as they have a closer representation to Gabriele Basilico’s work. Most of these photos relate more to Basilico’s work focusing on unfinished industrialisation, however repetitive architecture can also be seen.
Photoshop Development
Original Image
Edited Image
Original Image
Edited Image
Original Image
Edited Image
To edit these images, I used the black and white filter on photoshop in order to achieve the vintage, monochrome tones that Gabriele Basilico is known for. I then altered the brightness and contrast to make the juxtaposition between the light and dark tones more intense. For the last image I used the crop and straighten tool so the image was more centred.
Comparison between mine and Gabriele Basilico’s work
Gabriele Basilico’s work
My work
There is both similarities and differences between Basilico’s work and my own work, the most obvious being the use of the monochromatic filter on both images. There are also similarities in the sense that the image captures new topographics in a more vintage sense, as the buildings appear older and more classic. However they are different in the sense that Basilico’s image is taken on a much larger scale, as the buildings are more iconic and noticeably larger. Overall, I feel like these images compared share a few similarities however if I was to recreate Basilico’s work again I would use his more modern approach of finding repetition and echo within industrialised areas.
