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.
