“Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape”

New topographics was a term coined by William Jenkins in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers whose pictures had a similar banal aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly black and white prints of the urban landscape. These photographs captured a site of interaction between humans and the non-human, nature, and how the rapidly increasing population growth in countries produces new housing developments which are moving further and further away from city centres, taking over the countryside. New Topographics reflected this suburbanisation and reacted to the idealized image of landscape photography in a world where the ideal image of nature had simply been altered due to mankind. William Jenkins curated this as a signalled new approach to Landscape photography. The ten photographers who used this approach were:

• Robert Adams
• Nicholas Nixon
• Lewis Baltz
• Frank Gohkle
• Joe Deal
• Henry Wessel
• John Schott
• Stephen Shore
• Bernd Becher
• Hilla Becher

These photographers signalled the radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape photography and revealed the stark industrial views around us, scenes we go by every day unconsciously aware of them. They documented these suburban areas such as housing, warehouses and even car parks, depicted in the same way that these countryside areas were captured – beautiful stark austerity. Not only did this cause people to be more consciously aware of the reality of our environments, filled with man-made structures, but it also raised a daring concern and worry on how humans had been eroded natural spaces with industrialisation. An exhibition that helped with this awareness was The International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers.

This documentation of combined natural and man-made structures in America also captured the tension between natural scenery and monotonous structures of post World War Two. These images were often stark of human presence, described to be “neutral” in style, “reduced to an essentially topographic state, conveying substantial amounts of visual information but eschewing entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion, and opinion” by Jenkins himself. The American Landscape being photographed in such a casual and common place without beautification opens peoples eyes to the unnoticed and how much society progresses. By foregrounding, rather than erasing human presence, the photographs placed people into a stance of responsibility towards the landscape’s future. This was a position that resonated with ecology, the branch of environmental thought that was gaining traction in the 1970s.

Through square formatting, viewers could read the landscape as if it was traces of human decision-making. Moments of too-perfect symmetry in the patterns of rocks and bushes expose the landscaping as unnatural. Joe Deal photographed suburban development in the form of construction sites which become contrasted against the large piles of refuse and empty lots regularly shown in these images that suggest the wastefulness of abandoned projects. By framing the land in this way, Deal creates a space where his viewers must consider the cost of rapid growth in the fragile desert and how dangerously this would be impacting these natural spaces that should be protected and preserved.

Climate Change:

The message of climate change and global warming is invoked within these images. Due to the mundane showings of our society’s continuous and persistent growth further and further into industrialisation, it causes the viewer to question our actions. To create these spaces for urbanisation, trees and plants must be destroyed in order to create the largest space possible to allow the largest amount of houses to be developed for example. This is due to the constant growing population rates in countries, especially after World War Two where many people, especially Jewish, were occupied in Nazi Germany. Those who didn’t pass away were returning to their homeland to re-join with their families. Alongside this, the aftermath of World War Two brought:

• Inflation and labour unrest – a large economic concern
• The baby boom and suburbia – millions of people had died and lost family or friends. Veterans were finally free to make up for lost time, get married and begin their family.
• Isolation and mental health issues – Many people had lost family and were alone, PTSD from returning veterans

The returning people who fought for the country were various ages, especially those whose life had only begun due to being such a young age, were returning to begin families of their own after being away for 6 years of their lives already – resulting in ‘The Baby Boom’. This resulted in immediate new housing developments which began a spark, still continuing to this day where there is constantly a need for more. The burning of trees releases carbon however, when all the other trees have been destroyed for urbanization, there aren’t any nearby to take in this carbon and revert it. As a result, this carbon goes up into the atmosphere and begins to create holes in the ozone layer. This then provides the sun to be able to get its harmful rays in even stronger as the ozone layer acts as protection. This heats up the globe and continues our path down global warming. Alongside this, the burning of fossil fuels releases harmful toxins which contribute to this issue which is a result of the constant redevelopment of areas around the globe.

During an exhibition of New Topographics, some comments made were:

“I don’t like them—they’re dull and flat. There’s no people, no involvement, nothing.”

“At first it’s stark nothing, but then you look at it, and it’s just about the way things are.” 

“I don’t like to think there are ugly streets in America, but when it’s shown to you—without beautification—maybe it tells you how much more we need here.”

However, it causes viewers to rethink their choices and decisions when taking advantage of what is already there and what is genuinely needed against what is not once you really look at the image.