The New Topographics represented a radical shift by redefining the subject of landscape photography as the built (as opposed to the natural) environment. As environmentalism took hold of the public conscience in the 1970s, The old landscape photography from people like Ansel Adams, which where heroic and displaced the power of nature, where rejected in favour of how human activity connects with the natural world, rather than separating it. This means the truth of the natural world is captured, which making people understand the cruel impacts they are having on the world. 10 photographers pioneered this new way of landscape photography, and first displayed there photos in a small exhibition, in upstate NY, called new Topographics.
The Images they took showed the juxtaposition between humans and nature, and how we are constantly colliding with the natural world. They remind the viewers of the larger issue with our destruction towards the environment, as the heroic images of the natural landscape before often hid the truth. The celebration of nature continues to exist and photographer still try to capture the beauty of untouched nature. It is necessary for the causes of conservation.
Many people believed new topologies was the opposite of romanticism (anti-romanticism). Instead of trying to find the beauty in nature, by going to national parks for example, photographers of this exhibition tried to capture the by-products of Americas post war industrial expansion. Where the rise of urban sprawl and the reliance on cars are becoming a large worry.
the 10 photographers where Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel. They are tying to move away from a celebration of nature to a critique of humanity’s desire for expansion.
The image above is a very famous image from the new topographies. It has a very deadpan look, with nothing inherently interesting about it, due to its strait centre framing and blank lighting. Adams also had a very pessimistic tone towards this humans impact on the natural environment, trying to make the square and uniform mobile homes ugly in comparison to the smooth edged mountain top in the background. The harsh sun light reflecting off the mobile homes, with the dark and sinister background of a natural landscape, creates an obvious conflict between humans and nature. Many photos had basic composition, simple aesthetics and no beatification involved.
New topographics presents the American west being a landscape full of human developments, unlike how photographers of the pasted tried to present it as an untouched, beautiful piece of land.
Below are more examples of new topographics:
