New Topographics

New Topographics
Name	New Topographics
Year	1975
Location	United States
Notable people	Edward Burtynsky, Robert Adams, Stephen Shore, Lewis Baltz, Frank Gohlke, John Schott, Bernd and Hilla Becher

New Topographics is a term designating a pivotal moment in late 20th‑century landscape photography defined by an exhibition and a set of photographic practices that reframed views of built and altered environments. The approach contrasted with Romantic landscape traditions associated with Ansel Adams, W. Eugene Smith, Garry Winogrand, and Edward Weston by emphasizing neutral, documentary, and serial strategies linked to urbanization, industrialization, and suburban sprawl. Curatorial, institutional, and publishing networks including George Eastman House, Museum of Modern Art, Light Gallery, and critics such as John Szarkowski and Roberta Smith helped circulate the work internationally.

Origins and Influences

The lineage of the movement draws on antecedents including exhibition histories at Museum of Modern Art and George Eastman House, pedagogical lines from Rochester Institute of Technology and California School of Fine Arts, and prior projects by photographers such as Walker Evans, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Eugène Atget, and August Sander. Photographic theory from figures like John Szarkowski and curatorial practices associated with Aperture (magazine) and Artforum provided institutional contexts. Broader cultural forces such as postwar suburbanization in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Arizona, and Houston intersected with planning debates involving Jane Jacobs and infrastructure projects linked to Interstate Highway System to shape subject choices. The transatlantic exchange with European practices—including typological work by Bernd and Hilla Becher and documentary modes practiced in Düsseldorf School of Photography—also informed the aesthetic framework.

The 1975 Exhibition

The seminal 1975 show curated by William Jenkins at the George Eastman House titled with the phrase brought together photographers whose work had appeared in venues like Aperture (magazine), Artforum, Light Gallery, and exhibitions at Museum of Modern Art. Participants included practitioners who had exhibited at Photokina, taught at Yale University School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, California Institute of the Arts, and published monographs with Aperture Foundation, Steidl, and Phaidon Press. The exhibition traveled through institutional circuits that included regional museums and university galleries, generated critical responses in The New York Times, Artforum, and provoked dialogues with critics such as John Szarkowski and Andy Grundberg.

Aesthetic Principles and Style

Photographs associated with the movement adopted a restrained aesthetic emphasizing flat lighting, frontal viewpoints, and an impersonal presence akin to typologies by Bernd and Hilla Becher. The style drew on documentary histories exemplified by Walker Evans and the serial systems of the Düsseldorf School of Photography while rejecting picturesque treatments found in work by Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. Compositional strategies echoed the grids and plans central to Le Corbusier and urban mapping practices used in planning debates involving Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. Publishers and editors at Aperture (magazine), Aperture Foundation, and galleries such as Light Gallery codified the vocabulary through catalogues and essays.

Key Photographers and Works

Principal figures included Robert Adams with projects made in Denver and the American West, Lewis Baltz with serial studies of industrial parks and suburban lots, Stephen Shore with color studies of roadside scenes across Route 66 and Interstate 70, Frank Gohlke documenting agricultural landscapes and infrastructure, and John Schott recording edges of urban development. Later practitioners linked to the same lineage include Edward Burtynsky, Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Hiroshi Sugimoto, and members of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. Iconic projects circulated through museums, magazines, and publishers such as Aperture Foundation and Steidl.

Critical Reception and Legacy

Contemporaries debated whether the approach was an objective documentary practice or a critique of postwar development, with coverage in The New York Times, Artforum, Aperture (magazine), and responses from critics like John Szarkowski, Andy Grundberg, and Susan Sontag. Academics at institutions including Yale University, University of California, Los Angeles, and University of Arizona integrated the work into curricula, influencing generations of photographers who later exhibited at venues such as Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and Victoria and Albert Museum. The movement shaped debates in curatorial practice at George Eastman Museum and publishing programs at Aperture Foundation and Steidl, and its aesthetic can be traced through later projects addressing suburban sprawl, industrial ecology, and environmental policy dialogues.

Techniques and Subject Matter

Photographers favored large‑format and medium‑format cameras, meticulous contact printing and color transparency processes disseminated by editors at Aperture (magazine), and serial presentation strategies derived from the typologies promoted by Bernd and Hilla Becher. Subject matter concentrated on suburban developments, industrial parks, parking lots, tract housing, utility infrastructure, and altered agricultural fields in locales such as Los Angeles County, Phoenix, Arizona, Denver, and the industrial corridors of Pittsburgh and Detroit. Projects were often produced in series and sequenced in monographs published by Aperture Foundation, Steidl, and Phaidon Press.

Influence on Contemporary Photography

The aesthetic and conceptual methods associated with the movement persist in the work of contemporary photographers and collectives active in exhibitions at Tate Modern, MoMA PS1, Hayward Gallery, and festivals like Fotografiska and Paris Photo. Practitioners such as Edward Burtynsky, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth, Alec Soth, Mitch Epstein, and Rineke Dijkstra echo its formal rigour and urban concerns. The movement also informs visual studies programs at Yale School of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, University of California, Berkeley, and exhibition-making at institutions like Museum of Contemporary Photography and George Eastman Museum, ensuring its continued presence in academia, curation, and publishing.

Category:Photography movements Category:Exhibitions