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.
What is New Topographics?
New Topographics is a man-altered landscape, that can include man-made buildings, such as homes, towers, car parks etc. as well as natural environments, such as fields, mountains and beaches. The New Topographics can also just be a man-altered landscape with only man-made things.
The New Topographics photography was presented in the same way as natural/ romanticism/ sublime landscapes by many photographers.
The photos of man-altered landscapes presented man and nature coinciding with each other.
When did it become Popular?
A turning point in the history of photography, the 1975 exhibition New Topographics signalled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. This became popular post-war, because this was when society returned to normal and many more buildings/ man-made structures were built.
The Beginning of the Death of the American Dream
Many of the photographers associated with The New Topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon and Bernd and Hiller Becher, were inspired by the man-made.
New Topographics was inspired by the likes of Albert Renger Patszch and the notion of The New Objectivity.
Parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all portrayed with a beautiful stark austerity, almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape. An exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealed the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development.
What was the New Topographics a reaction to?
The New Topographics was a reflection of the increasingly suburbanised world around us, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental.
Post-war America struggled with:
- Inflation and labour unrest. The country’s main economic concern in the immediate post-war years was inflation. …
- The baby boom and suburbia. Making up for lost time, millions of returning veterans soon married and started families…
- Isolation and splitting of the family unit, pharmaceuticals and mental health problems
- Vast distances, road networks and mobility
The New Topographics became popular post-war, because as all the soldiers were returning from war to their families and more babies were being made, this meant that more buildings had to be built in order for everyone to have a home and so society can return back to normal. Buildings that were damaged in the war were also repaired and rebuilt.
The New Topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
Popular New Topographics Photographers
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, selecting subject matter that was matter-of-fact.
The New Topographics were to have a decisive influence on later photographers including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf School of Photography.
Robert Adams
Robert Adams was an American photographer, who was best known for documenting both the beauty and commercialization of the American West. He was born January 21st 1928 and died March 2nd 1997 at age 69. Adams was born in New Jersey and raised in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado. He moved to Southern California in 1956 to attend the University of Redlands. He chose to major in English literature and went on to earn a Ph.D. in that subject at the University of Southern California in 1965.
About his work
When Adams returned to Colorado to begin what he anticipated would be a career in teaching, he was dismayed by the changes he saw in the landscape. He bought a 35-mm camera, taught himself the fundamentals of photography, and began making pictures infused with a love for the geography of his home state.
Robert Adams has photographed the landscape of the American West for more than forty years, particularly in California, Colorado and Oregon. His vision is inspired by his joy in nature’s inherent beauty, yet tempered by his dismay at its exploitation and degradation. Adams uses photography to express his love for the landscape and to understand how urban and industrial growth have changed it, all the while insisting that beauty in the world has not been entirely eclipsed.
Who inspired him?
Adams style of work and his work was inspired by many other well known photographers who came before him. He was especially inspired by:
- Timothy O’Sullivan
- William Henry Jackson
- Carleton Watkins.
Other photographer, who often merged their social concerns with aesthetic ones also inspired Robert Adam’s work, such as:
- Lewis Hine
- Edward Weston
- Dorothea Lange
- Ansel Adams
His Books
Robert Adams made many books, such as:
- Los Angeles Spring
- Why People Photograph
- Art Can Help
- Turning back
As well as many other books.
However, his most popular book was a photo book called, ‘The New West,’ which included many of his new topographic photographs.
Robert Adams used Ansel Adams zonal System aswell for all his photographs, so he could get good exposure/ contrast in his black and white images. He was expired to create black and white images using the zonal system from Ansel Adams, just like he did.
Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian, said ‘his subject has been the American west: its vastness, its sparse beauty and its ecological fragility. What he has photographed constantly, in varying shades of grey is what has been lost and what remains’ and that ‘his work’s other great subtext’ is silence.
His Photographs
These are just some photos of Robert Adams work in New Topographics, where he includes images of man-made structure, as well as the natural environment around them, such as the trees, field or mountain.
His most Popular Work
This photo is his most popular work:
This image uses natural daylight lighting as it is taken outside during a cloudy day, so that when it is in black and white the sky is light grey instead of dark grey. The horizon line is positioned straight and above the caravan site. The image is located at a caravan site, where there is also a natural environment (the mountains in distance), as well as a man-made environment (the caravan site). This image has lots of contrast, as it is in black and white, so the image consists of a range of different grey tones. It has lots of different light and dark tones throughout. The layout of this image in split in half. The bottom half 9foreground) consisting of the man-made environment (caravan site) and the top half (background), where the horizon line is consisting of the natural environment (the field and mountain in the distance). These two very different environments are balanced and coincide in harmony.
This relates to the New Topographics, because the image presents how urban environments can coincide with nature and natural environments and how urban environments are growing more and more and can be displayed in the same way as natural landscapes. Roberts Adams took inspiration from Ansel Adams in this photo, as he used his zonal system when taking this photo, so he could get the correct exposure and contrast on his black and white photo. Ansel Adams also produced black and white landscapes. However, Robert Adams landscapes moved further away from the ‘norms’ of landscapes, which is what Ansel Adams focused on.
The concept of this photo is create awareness on how urban structures are growing in size over a vast majority of the world, but how this is not always a bad thing, as it can be just as beautiful and as much of an art as natural landscapes.
My Favourite Photograph
This image is my favourite of Robert Adams work, because it displays how man can live in harmony with the natural environment, without destroying it. This photo presents that, because it is just one church house in the middle of a natural environment and not an image of a big city for example, which ruins and takes over the environment.
This image uses natural daylight lighting as is it taken outside during a cloudy day, so that when it is in black and white the sky is light grey instead of dark grey. This image is in black and white has has contrast of light and dark tones. The main viewpoint is the small church in the middle of the field as it presents the balance and harmony between man kind and the natural environment.
This relates to the New Topographics, because the image presents how urban environments can coincide with nature and natural environments and how urban environments are growing more and more and can be displayed in the same way as natural landscapes. Roberts Adams took inspiration from Ansel Adams in this photo, as he used his zonal system when taking this photo, so he could get the correct exposure and contrast on his black and white photo. Ansel Adams also produced black and white landscapes. However, Robert Adams landscapes moved further away from the ‘norms’ of landscapes, which is what Ansel Adams focused on.
The concept of this photo is create awareness on how urban structures are growing in size over a vast majority of the world, but how this is not always a bad thing, as it can be just as beautiful and as much of an art as natural landscapes. This photo especially expresses how urban environments are not always destructive as there is one small man-made church in a vast natural environment, which is still there and protected.
Lewis Baltz
Lewis “Duke” Baltz was an American visual artist, photographer, and educator. He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s. He was born September 12th, 1945 in California and died 22nd November, 2014 at age 69, in Paris. He worked as a freelance photographer in California and taught photography at various institutions, including the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California (Riverside and Santa Cruz), Yale, the École Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, and the Art Academy of Helsinki.
About His Work
His best known work was monochrome (black and white) photography of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which highlighted his commentary of void within the “American Dream”. Lewis Baltz produces photographs in series focused on a particular theme or geographic area and usually publishes them in book form;
- The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California (1975)
- Nevada (1978)
- Park City (1981)
- Sites of Technology (2007)
- WORKS (2010)
- The Prototype Works (2011)
- Candlestick Point (2011).
- etc
His work, like that of others associated with the New Topographics, challenges the nineteenth century tradition of western landscape photography. Baltz’s perception of the landscape necessarily reveals the effects of twentieth-century culture and suburban development on the nation’s topography.
Lewis Blatz also created typology photographs, which is photographs that share a high level of consistency and Baltz most commonly took these typologies of large buildings in urban areas.
Who inspired him
Lewis Baltz started photography at age 12 and his early influences were Ed van der Elsken, Wright Morris and Edward Weston and frequented camera shops, especially William R.
His photographs
New Topographics:
Typologies:
His most popular work
This image was one of his most popular images, because his most popular images were his black and white photographs. The lighting used was natural daylight lighting, because the image was taken outside on a cloudy day, so that the sky would be a light grey, instead of a dark grey, like it would be on a sunny day. The image has high levels of contrast and lots of black and white tones (different shades of grey) throughout. The main viewpoint of this image is the old, dirty house.
This relates to the new topographics, because the photograph shows how urban man-made buildings and things can be taken as landscapes in the same way and style as natural landscapes are. This image may also show how houses were early post war, before they had been rebuilt and fixed. Houses would be like this post war due to the destruction of the war and bombings etc. The meaning behind this photo was to show that no matter how ugly, or worn down the man-made things/buildings are they can still be portrayed as beautiful, just like natural landscapes.
My Favourite Photo
This image is my favourite image, because it displays man-made structures coinciding with nature and living in balance and harmony.
This image uses natural daylight lighting, because the image was taken outside on a cloudy day, so that the sky would be a light grey, instead of a dark grey, like it would be on a sunny day. The image has high levels of contrast and lots of black and white tones (different shades of grey) throughout. The layout of this photo had the man-made structure in the background and uses the grass as a leading line towards the man-made structure, which makes me believe that the man-made structure is the viewpoint.
This relates to the New Topographics, because the image presents how urban environments can coincide with nature and natural environments and how urban environments are growing more and more and can be displayed in the same way as natural landscapes.
The concept of this photo is create awareness on how urban structures are growing in size over a vast majority of the world, but how this is not always a bad thing, as it can be just as beautiful and as much of an art as natural landscapes. This photo especially expresses how urban environments are not always destructive as there is one small man-made structure in a vast natural environment, which is still there and protected.
Their Influence
The world of photography underwent a significant transformation with the emergence of Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, two photographers known for injecting purpose and innovation into their work. Renowned for their change from traditional norms (natural landscapes), these artists reshaped the visual expression landscape.