What is ‘New Topographics’?
The phrase “New Topographics” was first used in 1975 to refer to a group of photographers who moved landscape photography away from idealized views of nature and toward man-made, urban, and industrial settings. These photographers, who included Bernd and Hilla Becher, Lewis Baltz, and Robert Adams, aimed to capture the effects of human activity on the environment in an unbiased, manner.
Lewis Baltz
Lewis Baltz makes series of pictures that are centered around a specific theme or region, and he normally publishes them as books, such as Park City (1981), Nevada (1978), and The New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California (1975).
By offering a more realistic perspective of the environment, his work, like that of other New Topographics photographers, questions the nineteenth-century famous western landscape photography showed by Timothy O’Sullivan, Carleton Watkins, and William Henry Jackson. Baltz’s view of the countryside constantly highlights how suburbanization and twentieth-century culture have impacted the country’s terrain.
Some of his work
CASE STUDY: Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print
Foreground vs Background
Foreground
In the foreground we can see an American – styled gas station, that has jagged edges creating very perfect looking shadows. This further leads the image into the mountain range in the depths of the background. This is called leading lines. For example the roof of the gas station is leading into the background of the image. In the background we can see the mountain range overlapping with the horizon creating a yellow source of light. Also in the foreground we can see 2 different coloured cars. We can analyze that they are moving as they are blurry. This also suggests that a low shutter speed was used for this image further meaning that it could have been placed on a tripod to keep place. All of the colour appears to be light which further gives the image a temperature. This suggests that the atmosphere is warm and the light yellow light also suggests that it is very dry suggesting they are potentially still near rural America.
Background
As we move further back into the image we can notice that the format of the image is very square, which further puts emphasis onto the fact of symmetry. The background also seems to have a sense of calmness as compared to the foreground as the foreground seems cluttered and busy; whilst the background represents a calmer and more connected feel. This can further add to context as at the time the background is a representation of nature and how people are commuting and what they are seeing on their way to work. There also appears to be a very wide depth of field that suggests a large format camera was also being used.
The American Dream
This picture reinforces the stereotype of the American dream as it is how most non-American people see America and imagine it to be.
Contextual
8 cars 4 pumps 3 gas stations this photo is all about automobiles and how people were forced to move further away from there jobs and commuting became an everyday factor. Everything is pointing towards the mountains, human damage on the lands the pointing to the mountains suggests for people to get out as they have damaged the landscape enough and need to know what it is like when reverted back to how it was in the beginning