What is new Topographic?
“New topographic 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”
New topographic focus on the man made elements of our environment and how they have effected the aesthetic or health of the planet.
Many believe or view topographic photography as dull and boring , entering a realm of realism in contrast to romanticism a more in depth perspective is shown on the link above
ANALYSIS
Foreground vs background | Dominant features
- In the foreground of the photo there is a blue retro looking car almost like a mustang , fitting the aesthetic of the 70s
- Further enhancing the appearance of the 70s is a 7 eleven with the old structure
- Arguably the car is the most dominant feature as it is centre stage and takes up a large amount of the image
Nationalism vs mobility vs isolation
- This image explores the feeling of isolation and being excluded from other places of society, this is done through the lack of other cars , people and any signs of activity within the photo.
Colour | impact and relevance
- Whilst the image itself includes colour the hues are mainly dull and faded for example yes the sky is blue but its somewhat grey. The impact here is that it gives off an impression of gloominess within its isolation
Perspective and detail / cluttering
- In this image whilst there is cluttering its kept contained to the centre line of the photo mainly appearing bare on the top and bottom outskirts
Composition | low horizon line | Square format
- This image is a demonstration of the use of the low horizon line , beginning at the bottom third of the photo enhancing the look of it being isolated as it greats a bare void within the image
Examples of photographers
Robert Adams
“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…
Critic Sean O’Hagan, writing in The Guardian,
Robert Adams produced a seminal book names The New West originally published in 1974
A photographic essay addressing the disappearing American West
“Robert Adams has documented a representative sampling of the whole suburban Southwest.”
Adams took a sequence of 5 images of the Colorado Rocky mountains to help show the environment being blanketed by man made structures.
“all land, no matter what has happened to it, has over it a grace, an absolutely persistent beauty,”
Robert Adams
“Robert Adams’ The New West signalled a paradigm shift in the photographic representation of American landscapes”