”New Topographics: photographs of man altered landscape” this was an exhibition of contemporary landscape photography held at George Eastman House’s international museum of photography ( October 1975 – February 1976 ) the show was made by William Jenkins which had a lasting effects on aesthetic and conceptual approaches to landscape photography.
This images documentaries built landscape and the natural landscape in America often showing tension between natural scenery compared to the structures of post-war America. The photos often had a documentary feel to them and are devoid of human presence, which give the image a whole new feel of emotion.
Examples of NewTopographics
Images from google.
this images help to also see the vision of the “ growing unease about how the natural landscape is ruined by industrial development – This could link to the romanticism movement.
Have a look at this link or my previous post about romanticism.
Post-war America struggled with economy and the great rise in inflation. As well as after the war ended all the veterans returned home and to make up for lost time got married and started families. However due to the war there were a lot of mental and physical health problems and issues with pharmaceuticals.
Lewis Baltz
An American visual artist and photographer. Was best known for his monochrome images of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which commented on the American dream.
Lewis Baltz was born September 12, 1945 in California. Baltz work focused on trying to find the beauty in the destruction to the natural environment, His pictures can be seen as a reflection show the control and power over human beings. More specifically his work and exhibitions of his ” topographic” work such as “The New Industrial Parks” show the crisis of technology on humans as well as his work titled “Candlestick Point” consisted of 84 photographs which showed a public space taken over by humans leaving things such as debris and litter next to a national park.
During 1980s Baltz moved himself and his work to Europe and this is when his work started to change and turn into large colour prints. In 2002 Baltz became a professor in the European Graduate school in Saas-Fee Switzerland and lived his last years through Paris and Venice but passed in 2014 following illness.
“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…
New Topographics– Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape
New Topographics was created in 1975 by William Jenkins 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. This movement, known as the New Topographics, represented a significant shift in the way we view the world around us. It is the idea of photographing man altered landscapes. They trained their cameras on the by-products of post-war suburban expansion: freeways, gas stations, industrial parks, and tract homes.
What was the New Topographics a reaction to?
The New Topographics reacts to the ‘old’ idea of landscapes which every bit of the image captures nature without any influence by humans, meanwhile the new concept of landscapes is the idea of man made and nature combined how humans have the need to expand taking away the natural land.
Historical Context : Post-war America struggle
The late 1960s and the early 1970s were a turbulent time for the US economy. President Johnson’s Great Society brought about major spending programs across a broad array of social initiatives at a time when the US fiscal situation was already being strained by the Vietnam War. These growing fiscal imbalances complicated monetary policy.
Months after World War II ended more babies were born thatn ever before 3.4 million, 20 percent more than in 1945. This was the beginning of the so-called “baby boom.” In 1947, another 3.8 million babies were born; 3.9 million were born in 1952; and more than 4 million were born every year from 1954 until 1964, when the boom finally tapered off. By then, there were 76.4 million “baby boomers” in the United States. They made up almost 40 percent of the nation’s population.
In the 1970s, there was a much bigger stigma surrounding mental health than there is today. In an article written by Wulf Rossler titled, “The Stigma of Mental Health,” Rossler talks about the rise of this stigma surrounding mental health. He discusses the negative impacts of this stigma and how it has affected the way people view mental health. He writes, “A scientific concept on the stigma of mental disorders was first developed in the middle of the 20th century, first theoretically and eventually empirically in the 1970s.” This explains when the stigma was adopted. The time period it comes from was a time period where mental health was not addressed in schools. He continues to say, “Overall, the 1960s and 1970s were full of an anti‐psychiatry attitude, blaming psychiatry for being repressive, coercive and more damaging than helpful to patients.” This portrays the idea that mental health wasn’t important and something that shouldn’t be discussed back in the 1970s.
All these issues in the 1970s inspired the photographers then, they were showing through their photography the main issues in America at that time.
Topographic Photographers:
Robert Adams
Robert Adams was born in 1937 in Orange, New Jersey. After earning a PhD in English literature and teaching the subject for several years at Colorado College, he became a photographer in the mid-1960s. Adams has published more than 40 books of photographs, with the changing landscape of the American West as his primary subject;
“I think if you placed me almost anywhere and gave me a camera you could return the next day to find me photographing. It helps me, more than anything I know, to find home.”
Stephen Shore
Stephen Shore was a photographer. Born in New York City in 1947, he learned about and practiced photography from the age of six. In 1958, Shore was given a copy of Walker Evans’ book American Photographs introducing him to a descriptive visual language of place. At the age of fourteen, his work was bought by Edward Steichen for the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From 1965 through 1967, Shore worked in Andy Warhol’s studio, the Factory, a formative experience that allowed him to experiment with combining documentary and conceptual modes later images. In 1971, at the age of twenty-four, Shore had a solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the first accorded a living American photographer. Shore emerged in the 1970s as one of the major exponents of colour photography, shooting bleak yet lyrical scenes of the North American landscape. Documenting everyday settings and objects, from hotel swimming pools and televisions to parking lots, gas stations, and deserted roads, Shore exhibited an ability to transform commonplace surroundings into compelling works of art,
CASE STUDY: Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print
Technical :
The light on this image is very bright because of the natural sunny day, Stephen is using a 8×10 camera on a tripod to capture as much detail as possible
Visual:
The colour in this image is very vibrant the predominate colours being blue white and red with might represent the American flag.
The image is very busy with cars, signs, petrol station, lights,…
the mountain can be seen in the background with is the only part of the image that is not altered by men.
The sign of the petrol station is pointing at the mountain.
Conceptual:
This image was taken in 1975 in America and different from most countries around the world at this time America looked quite modern, every building built had a propose and nature quite disappeared. What I find interesting in this image is how the big sign of the petrol station was pointing at the mounting.
“In the 1970s was a period with both high inflation and uneven economic growth. High budget deficits, lower interest rates, the oil embargo, and the collapse of managed currency rates contributed to stagflation.”
America is only about 500 years old so all the architecture is very modern compared to Europe which there are still a lot of building with old structures.
Relating to the arrangement of the physical features of an area. “a topographic map of the site” Anything topographic has to do with the surface of the earth, including every valley and hill. A topographic map includes lines that show the elevation of the land.
What is meant by the term New topographics in relation to photography during the industrial revolution?
“New topographics ” was a term created by William Jenkins ( An Art Critic.) in 1975 to describe a group of American photographers (such as Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz) , New topographics can be seen as another way to describe landscapes: how they are structured visually/physically and composed. For this era of photography it was used as a label to generalise a style of photography which included pictures that had a similar banal ( lacking originality, freshness) aesthetic, in that they were formal, mostly monochrome ( black and white) prints of the urban landscape.
Photographers associated with the New topographics.
Overall, Most The Photographers Associated with new topographics including Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Stephen Shorer, Where clearly inspired by the man made , selecting subject matter , that was matter-of-fact. This included urban structures like parking lots, suburban housing and warehouses were all depicted with a unique stark austerity ( sternness or severity of manner or attitude) , Almost in the way early photographers documented the natural landscape.
An exhibition at the international museum of photography located in Rochester, New York featuring these photographers also revealing a story of a growing unease about how the natural landscapes where being eroded by industrial development.
The new topographics also had a decisive influence on later photographer including those artists who became known as the Düsseldorf school of photography.
Stephen Shore – Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975
What Was the New Topographics a Reaction To?
The New Topographics was a response to the romanticized and dramatic landscape photography that dominated earlier styles, particularly in the works of Ansel Adams and the American West tradition.
Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite National Park,” by Ansel Adams, about 1937.Credit…The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, via Museum of Fine Arts, BostonMonolith — The Face of Half Dome, Yosemite National Park,” Ansel Adams, 1927.Credit…The Ansel Adams Publishing Rights Trust, via Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
This movement emerged in reaction to the rapid industrialization and suburban expansion of the 20th century, shifting the focus from untouched nature to human-altered landscapes. Instead of capturing spacious wilderness, these photographers documented the everyday, man-made environment, portraying the stark reality of urban society, industrial sites, and suburban developments.
Characteristics of the New topographics style Photography.
Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Nicholas Nixon, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Stephen Shore ; shared a common aesthetic:
Banal Subject Matter: They depicted ordinary, functional landscapes such as suburban housing developments, highways, warehouses, and industrial zones.
Robert Adams, Newly occupied tract houses Colorado Springs, 1968
Matter-of-Fact Presentation: Their images were often formal, detached, and devoid of overt emotional or political statements.
Lewis Baltz, The new Industrial Parks near Irvine California, 1974
Monochrome & Colour Photography: Many photographers used black-and-white photography, reinforcing a documentary-like objectivity, while others, like Stephen Shore, explored the potential of colour.
Lewis Baltz, The new Industrial Parks near Irvine California, 1974
Stark Composition : The compositions were often simple, symmetrical, and methodically structured, emphasizing repetition and geometry.
Stephen Shore, Church and 2nd Streets Easton Pennsylvania, 1974
Minimalist Aesthetic: The photographs had a clinical, neutral tone, rejecting romantic standards set by the romanticism era.
The Influence of New Topographics
The movement significantly influenced later photographers, particularly those of the Düsseldorf School, including Andreas Gursky and Thomas Struth. Their approach to large-scale, detailed images of contemporary urban life echoes the conceptual and aesthetic principles established by the New Topographics.
CASE STUDY: Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print
Technical Analysis
Lighting: The image is illuminated by natural daylight, casting strong shadows and enhancing contrast. The even lighting ensures all elements remain visible and well-defined. The bright, clear sky provides a solid backdrop for the man-made structures in the foreground.
Aperture: The deep depth of field keeps every element sharp, from the Chevron sign in the foreground to the mountains in the distance.
Shutter Speed: The presence of motion blur in the orange and yellow cars in the foreground suggests a slightly slower shutter speed, emphasizing movement in contrast to the stillness of the signage and architecture.
ISO: The fine grain and sharp detail indicate a low ISO, maintaining clarity in both bright and shadow areas.
White Balance: The cool blue sky contrasts with the warmer tones of the signage and pavement, reinforcing the separation between natural and man-made elements.
Visual Analysis
The foreground is heavily cluttered with signs, traffic lights, and fuel station, while the background is an open, expansive sky with distant mountains. This juxtaposition emphasizes how even though urbanization occurred , natural landscapes are always in part present and not forever lost, however very much dominated and overwhelmed by the man-made structures
Colour:
The dominant red, white, and blue in the Chevron sign echo American nationalism, reinforcing the idea that corporate branding is deeply embedded in American identity.
Tone:
The photograph balances light and dark tones, using contrast to define structures. The solid blue sky acts as negative space, making the signs stand out prominently.
Texture:
The smooth, reflective surfaces of signs and vehicles contrast with the rough pavement
Shape & Form:
The strong geometric composition features rectangles, vertical lines, and directional signage, creating leading lines which help your eyes through the image.
Pattern & Repetition:
The repetition of corporate signage (Chevron, Texaco) and road signs emphasizes the omnipresence of consumer culture.
Line & Space:
The road acts as a leading line, guiding the viewer’s eye toward the mountains.
The Chevron sign’s arrows direct the gaze further into the scene
The low horizon line places emphasis on the sky while anchoring the cluttered urban environment below.
Contextual Analysis
Historical Context:
The low fuel prices indicate a time when gasoline was significantly cheaper, reflecting an era of car dependency.
The 1970s American Dream was heavily associated with freedom, travel, and consumerism, all fuelled by the oil industry.
Personal Context
Stephen Shore, a key figure in the New Topographics movement, deliberately photographed mundane, everyday American scenes to challenge traditional ideas of beauty in photography.
Cultural/Social/Political Contexts:
The signage pollution symbolizes corporate intrusion into public spaces.
The American car culture and oil industry are central themes fuel companies profited from the nation’s reliance on cars , influencing infrastructure and lifestyle choices.
Wider Connections:
The tension between national pride (symbolized by American colors) and corporate dominance raises questions about whether commercialism has overtaken cultural identity.
Conceptual Analysis
The Chevron sign is a dominant signifier, larger and more prominent than any natural elements in the frame, symbolizing corporate power.
The use of red, white, and blue in the Chevron sign mirrors the American flag, blending corporate branding with national identity.
The large-format camera allows for a vast depth of field, ensuring every detail is crisp and visible. This enhances the documentary nature of the image, making the viewer engage with all elements rather than focusing on a singular subject.
To take these images we all went down to Havre de pas and took some images of the surrounding scenery and the man made structures. This photoshoot was a way to show the comparison of nature in juxtaposition to man-made structures.
photoshoot
Edited images
Joiners
this joiner I made manually on photoshop by creating an untitled document and opening all the images I wanted to use on separate tabs and resized and placed them where I wanted them to be on the document.
I went to a variety of places to get some highland landscapes and sea landscapes
The Selection
I then went through and chose what images I liked and want to edit
Further Selection
With the rating system, I decided to categories it by group and what I think looks best. For the 1 star, I chose the images which looked overexposed and just overall not the best. The 2 star category was for images which have high and low exposure shots, this gives me a wide variety but overall not the best quality. For the 3 stars, this was for images in which looked the same or have potential to be edited better. The last two stars (4 and 5) are my favourite pictures I took which I think have potential to be edited even better and create good pieces of work.
Editing
The first editing I did was merging the three landscape images into a HDR image. This created a brighter and more colourful image with higher saturation giving it a more of a unreal vibe about it as normally we do not see the world in this amount of saturation.
Taking inspiration from Ansel Adams, I then created a digital copy of the edited image where I then turned into black and white. This made the image more deeper and richer as it focused more onto the darker points of the image like the ground and the darker parts of the sky. The tonal range corresponds to Adams’ zone system where my photo as aspects from tone 0 to 11
These images I think best fit Ansel Adams’ work as it shows a range of colour and tone. This landscape was best as it had a good amount of sky to ground and especially since the sky was being dramatic it made a good contrast. The colours blend together well which emphasises the natural lighting as I didn’t manipulate any settings to get the soft colours. A lot of texture is also seen in the photo: the ground, the ruin building and the sky. This shows a nice contrast of texture in threes, from the clouds, the brick and the gravelly stones / dirt.
These images were also inspired by Ansel Adams as the large rock reminded me of one of his images
The coloured images also reminded me of Ansel Adams’ opinion of just seeing isn’t enough so you whatever you feel take a photograph of it, most of the coloured images are saturated to show how life is a lot brighter than what we normally see. However, in the black and white image I added -25 of vignetting which added a nice boarder to the image which also contrasts to the sun and the brighter sky.
Here I decided to add more depth towards the sky to give it a more dramatic effect creating a deeper shade of blue. I adjusted the colours so the tones in the image would vairey instead of being dull. When editing I made the horizon line straight so te layout would be completely horizontal with this I also cropped the image smaller so there wouldn’t be as many distractions in the photo, this meant taking out unnecessary items like the girl and the bench. With the black and white image, I added viagnette to also give it more depth and an oldish time feel to mach Ansel Adams photographs.
Lastly, I put my favourite images into a virtual gallery to display them. If I were to do this again, I would make sure to take multiple of the same photo to have a different variation that i can edit on because some of the images could turn out blurry and that means I wouldn’t be able to work on them. I’d also try and have a different way of editing to make it more creative but still make it realistic.
Born – February 20th 1902 in San Francisco, California
Grew up in a house set near the sand dunes of the Golden Gate
A massive earthquake and fire of 1906 managed to throw him on the floor so hard it broke his nose badly, creating a mark for life
After that, his family’s fortune collapsed in 1907 leaving his family in a panic
His mother treated him poorly due to trying to get the father to regain all the fortunes however, Charles Adams, father, encouraged and supported Ansel
School Life:
He struggled fitting in to school because of his broken nose as a consequence of that Ansel had moved to various amount of school
His father and aunt ended up tutoring him leading him to get a ‘legitimizing diploma’ which is the equivalent to have finished ‘grade 8’
Exposure Compensation- Exposure compensation basically helps you override automatic exposure adjustments your camera makes in situations with uneven light distribution, filters, non-standard processing, or underexposure or overexposure. It lets you take control of your image’s brightness by manually increasing or decreasing exposure.
Exposure Bracketing- Basically, when you bracket your shots you take exactly the same picture of your subject at several different exposures. This technique gives you a range of options to choose from when you’re editing. As a result, it’s much less likely that you’ll end up with a badly underexposed or overexposed photo.
HDR Photos- The term dynamic range describes the ratio between the brightest and darkest parts of an image. HDR, or high dynamic range, can describe the cameras or techniques you can use to capture a greater dynamic range than SDR (standard dynamic range, a non-HDR format) camera sensors can record.
Exposure Bracketing Camera Guide
Click Av on the camera
In the menu, select the second tab and go to ‘Expo. Comp. /AEB
Use the dial on the top of the camera to set the range of exposure you want to capture with your 2nd and 3rd photo
After you have set the exposure range, you will see two extra marks on the exposure metre
Now take 3 photos and your camera will automatically change the exposure for each one.
TIP: You can also set the camera to continuous shooting, to take 3 photos in close succession – all you need to do is hold the shutter button down.
Exposure Bracketing Experiment
I used the exposure bracketing setting on the camera which takes 3 images with your chosen exposure. 1 as normal exposure 1 as a higher exposure and 1 with a lower exposure.
How To Do It
Select the 3 images:
Right Click and select Photo Merge HDR:
Final HDR Image
Second Images
Final Image
Images
HDR Image
Images
HDR Image
Experimenting using lightroom
Vignette
How to: select effects and change the amount of vignette and if you want it to be lighter or darker
The new Topographics was a term made by William Jenkins which was used to describe a group of American photographers whose photos had a similar banal aesthetic. in that they were formal and mostly taken in black and white, there photos also consisted of the urban landscape around them.
The New Topographics mostly focused on Man-altered landscapes such as homes packed together, industrial buildings, roads and anything that disrupted the view or area of natural landscapes.
Historical context
The New Topographics were mostly made in response to the fast increasing suburbanised world around them. Topographic photos were taken around the 70s and the historical context of why America were becoming more suburban is that in post-war America, to accommodate all the returning soldiers coming home and to keep up with the new innovations in the industrial sector, they decided to build more buildings and more homes as well as more roads so vehicles (which were rising in popularity more and more) could drive along these paths. As a result it ended up transforming areas, which were previously natural and contained good views of the landscape ahead into buildings and roads which expanded for 100s of miles in each direction which resulted into landscapes beyond these buildings being barley visible and big natural areas being removed in order to build these man made structures.
Why were Photographers interested in these structures?
Most photographers took pictures of these manmade structures to show the growing unease of how natural landscapes were being replaced and removed by industrial development. Places once natural and untouched were now cleared and terraformed in order to make space for buildings and roads which would be placed instead.
Artist Reference – Stephen Shore
Stephen Shore, Beverly Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, Los Angeles, California, June 21, 1975, chromogenic colour print
Technical
The photo uses natural daylight in this image which lights the image up quite strongly as their is no clouds in the sky to cover up the suns light. You can also see the image uses a slow shutter speed as we can see the cars on the left side of the image appear quite blurry. The temperature of the lighting is cold as the image contains more of a blue hue than a yellow hue of colour. We can also see that due to the way the lighting is projecting towards the object, it ends up creating hard edged shadows of the objects/structures in the image.
Visual
With this photo you can see the hard edged shadows that form around the objects and structures. The image is aligned in a specific manner that it resembles some aspects of the rule of thirds. We can also notice that starting from the top of the image with the bright blue skies and then moving towards the bottom half of the image that it starts to become more cluttered with buildings, signs and lamp posts obstructing the view ahead. The photo is in a square format which allows the focus of the image to be more concentrated towards the bottom and the picture appears to be pointed towards nature by the way some objects are pointed like the signs or the direction the cars are driving towards.
Contextual
This picture might be focused on the achievement of cars and how prices for them have gone down meaning lots more people are able to afford them and drive hundreds of miles and have the freedom to go anywhere. We can also see nationalism on the gas station sign as it uses the iconic colours of the American flag.
Conceptual
This image might be showing us the gradual change from natural landscapes to man-made structures which is starting to benefit the majority of people. From the cheap cars to the wide range of options of where to go for food or shopping in town areas. This photo could also be seen as a depicting the start of the American dream and how it looks to live in America.
