“New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” was an exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography.
About
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 landscape.
Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape.
What was both novel and challenging about New Topographics was not only the photographs’ content, but how they made viewers feel. By foregrounding, rather than erasing human presence, the photographs placed people into a stance of responsibility towards the landscape’s future—a position that resonated with ecology, the branch of environmental thought that was gaining traction in the 1970s.
Ansel adams topography
The Tetons and the Snake River, Wyoming, 1942
Ansel Adams wanted his viewers to feel as uplifted as he had when looking at the scenery in person. His photographs contributed to the cause of conservationism, the environmental approach that seeks to preserve landscapes and protect them from human democracy.
New Topographics represented a radical shift of landscape photography from photos of the natural environment, to photos of the built new developing environment. Many of the photographers associated with new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made new delepoing areas of America. Carparks, suburban housing and warehouses were all photographed with beauty that they were not considered to have, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. These new topographic photographers were less concerned with portraying an ideal image of nature and were more interested in showing plainly how man has altered it.
Examples of the New Topographic images
These images depict the difference between the natural landscape of the world, and how man-made structures have altered the natural landscape. In the images you can see man made structures that still contain natural landscapes and nature around them, depicting that even though the world has been impacted by these structures, nature still exists around them.
What was the New Topographics a reaction to?
It can be argued that the New Topographics was a reaction to the traditional photographs of landscapes taken by photographers such as Ansel Adams. These new photographers wanted to shift away from the traditional landscape photos to create new unusual landscape photographs of the new developing world, a huge shift away. These new photos of everyday buildings taking over nature, placed people into a stance of responsibility towards the landscape’s future, a branch of thought which became very popular in the 1970s.
New Topographic -was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers whose pictures had a similar aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscapes
These photographers were inspired by the man-made, selecting subject matter that was matter-of-fact. Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape.
Henry Wessel examples
what was the new topographics a reaction to?
is a reaction to a newly formed man made environment and its impact on nature itself it also represents what environments people encounter in their day to day life
After going through some of my images I chose a few with good lighting, and perspectives
Final Selection
My Original Image
Original Settings
Adjusted image
Adjusted settings
While I have made very subtle adjustments, they were necessary because I feel that the original image was a bit too overexposed and so in order to tone it down and give the surrounding trees and ruins more detail.
New topographics was a term used by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (eg. Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) whose pictures had a similar aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape. It was also an exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography.
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz was an American photographer and visual artist that was born on September 12th, 1945 in Newport Beach, California. He is famous for his black-and-white images of parking lots, office parks, industrial garage doors and the backs of anonymous warehouses that helped forge a new tradition of American landscape photography in an age of urban sprawl. He is also an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s.
Robert Adams
Robert Adams was born in New Jersey in 1937. He moved to Southern California in 1956 to attend the University of Redlands where he chose to major in English literature and went on to earn a Ph. Adams is now a popular American photographer that focused on the changing the landscape of the American West. His work got noticed in the mid 70s through his book ‘The New West’ and his participation in the New Topographics exhibition.
Urban landscapes is a complex structure which is a result of the interaction between human and his environment. It also involves a social dimension and an economic dimension, a cultural dimension and an economic dimension. Urban landscapes are formed and shaped mainly under the influence of human activities.
urban design is concerned with the arrangement , appearance and function of suburbs, towns and cities. It is both a process and an outcome of creating localities in which people live, engage with each other, and engage with physical place around them.
MOOD BOARD
ARTIST RESEARCH
Nick Furo:
Nick Rufo is a 25 year old Los Angeles based digital & film photographer. His work often captures the world with a sense of timelessness that is often contrasted by intense isolationism.
His clients are Adidas, Air Jordan, AT&T, Audi, BONDA SKINS, Dockers, Goldenvoice, Gymshark, Haagen – Dazs, Herschel Supply co, Lifetime, The rap fest, Tubi, red bull, warner music, Zero fatigue
Riccardo Magherini:
‘Magherini takes multiple frames of the same location, and layers them to create unique images that distort the subjects within the picture, and create a sense of movement. Much like Hockney and Picasso, the pieces seek to capture the dynamic nature of the world and how it is never static. Even though the image depicts a building made of stone, a frantic energy is ever present.’ – THE PHOTOGRAPHY PROJECT
Nick miners:
Night photography
Liam Wong
Born and raised in Scotland – within two years of graduating, Wong moved to Canada – becoming the youngest director at Ubisoft, the video game company behind Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed. In parallel with his blossoming career in video games, Wong was teaching himself photography.
In December 2015 he purchased his first DSLR (a Canon 5D III) and his debut photo series: ‘Tokyo Nights (TO:KY:OO)’ – capturing the beauty of night through moments after midnight – inspired by sci-fi, neon-noir, cyberpunk and Japanese animation – gained over a million views worldwide, accumulating a following online and kickstarting his journey into photography. Wong has since collaborated with many high profile companies, artists, musicians and directors. His work has been recognized by media outlets such as BBC, Forbes, Business Insider, Saatchi and Adobe. Full press list available here. In 2019 ‘TO:KY:OO’ became the largest crowdfunded book in the UK. It is available for purchase at: TO:KY:OO. Includes words by game creator Hideo Kojima and visual futurist Syd Mead.
Wong is now freelance and working on unannounced projects across film, video games and photography. Available for collaborations.
A regular public speaker – Wong has spoken at events around the world and is always open for opportunities to share his expertise. Past public speaking events include the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Game Developers Conference and Canon.
Romanticism started off as an art movement in the late 18th Century that emphasized individualism, imagination and freedom rather than sticking to life. Due to the popularity of both landscape photography and romanticism at the time, it was only a matter of time until both combined to create romantic landscape photography. Romanticism in photography tends to focus on emotion, usually creating a ‘moody’ image in order to project how the photographer feels about the environment they’re photographing.
A Rural Landscape photograph is an image of a rural/countryside or natural area, which tend to be less built-up which gives the images a primary focus on nature.
Rural Landscapes Moodboard
Ansel Adams
Adams was born on the 20th February 1902, he was considered one of the most important and influential landscape photographers of the 20th century. He worked as a photographer and environmentalist who used his photography to promote the conservation of untouched natural areas, he also worked to promote photography as a fine art to the general public. Adams was considered a talented and technical photographer who ‘revelled in the theory and practice of the medium’. He worked in several national parks over his life-long photographic career in order to promote their conservation and as a result, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1980. Adams was a key advisor in the setting up of the photography department in the Museum of Modern Art, as well as various other awards for his photographic and conservational work, he also founded the Aperture photographic magazine.
Image Analysis
This image is in black and white (likely due to the restrictions of the technology at the time), which allows the darker and lighter parts of the image, namely the darker trees/mountain base and lighter river/sky, to have a greater contrast between each other. This lack of colour also gives the image a more ‘epic’ (perhaps ‘romantic’) atmosphere about it, especially in the clouds and jagged shape of the mountain. This image uses the river not only as a way to give the image more contrast, but also acts as a leading line towards the focal point: the mountain. This image also follows the rule of thirds, as the mountain (at around it’s highest point) is positioned on the top right of the image, it could also be argued that the river, which is positioned on the bottom left, acts as a focal point, as it is arguably the brightest part of the image. The sky in this image appears to be cloudy, this would mean that the lighting would be not as strong as if the weather was clearer. This gives the overall image a darker look, however there are little to no shadows apparent in the image, giving the image a clearer look. This image was likely taken from a high vantage point, allowing trees to appear in the foreground, while also showing much of the river, which leads into a mountain which, due to the high vantage point as well as distance, can be fully seen with enough room to breath.
Perhaps the meaning behind this image is to promote the conservation of the natural landscapes within the world by using nature’s beauty to inspire people.
the ideas behind romanticism became common after 1789, the year of the French Revolution that caused a significant social change in Europe. Romanticism, first defined as an aesthetic in literary criticism around 1800, gained popularity as an artistic movement in France and Britain in the early decades of the nineteenth century and thrived until the mid-century. Romanticism spread throughout Europe in the 19th century and developed as an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that embraced various arts such as literature, painting, music and history. Romanticism was also expressed in architecture through the imitation of older architectural styles.
According to the article titled “Romanticism and Its Relation to Landscape Photography & Painting”, romanticism was an art form that rejected classicalism and focused on nature, imagination and emotion. It crossed between music, painting, photography and many other art forms. Landscape photography was popular at this time, therefore, romantic landscapes were common. The landscapes focused on the beauty of nature and included a lot of running water and vast forests (Hirsch 42) .
In preparation to start taking images that will show demonstrate romanticism, I have come up with some ideas of where photoshoots could take place as there in Jersey we have a variety of natural landscapes to go to to take good photos.
St Ouens
Woods
L’Etacq
Sand Dunes
Cliff Paths
Reserviour
Green Island
Field
PotentialLocations
St Ouens Beach
L’Etacq
St Catherine’s Woods
Fields/ Farms
Cliff paths
Sand Dunes
Reservoirs in St Saviours
Green Island
Contact Sheets and Photoshoot Plans
Photoshoots 1 and 2, shown below, were located at St Aubin’s beach and a reservoir in St Saviours, this was in an attempt to generate as many images as possible and get a variety of different images, this allowed me to also get more practise with the camera settings and this meant by my final photoshoot my images were of better quality as I now know how settings such as the ISO and shutter speed work. Also, I took them at different times of the day, one during sunset and one in the afternoon, but the lighting just ended up looking more dull in the reservoir photoshoot.
Photoshoot 3 shown below was located at the La Mar beach in St Clement, I took all of these photos were taken around 5pm, the aim was too have minimal lighting so that my images were turned from colour to monochromatic, the contrast in colours would be greater, also this was good practise when changing the camera settings to adapt to the changing lighting as the sun started to set.
Photoshoot 4 was taken around Le Quesnes garden centre in St Saviour, with the roads full of grass and natural features, and the clouds being defined in the sky, I thought this was the perfect time to take more images for this project. Below I have placed a contact sheet containing some images from this photoshoot.
Image Selection and Editing
Below I have created a collection showing the majority of my useable images from some of the photoshoots. I have also included examples of me editing some of my potential final images, as I have tried to romanticise some of my images my making them monochromatic. Some of these images were not really edited a lot but were just altered to make them better quality and we images were the editing is drastic I have included the Lightroom settings on the right hand side. I liked editing some of these images in this monochromatic way as it it relates it to our projects theme of romanticism.
I have edited my images in such ways for multiple reasons, first being that the exposure on the original images was far too low and this needed editing to be fixed in Lightroom. Additionally, I think that the saturation of some of the colours of these images needed altered as it makes the images more interesting and gives them more depth, along with changing the clarity. I think that making these images monochromatic links to the theme of romanticism and shows the natural landscapes from a different view. I have showed these screenshots in Lightroom so that we can clearly see the difference between the images after being edited, this means that we can see the clear difference.
