REVIEW: “New Topographics” (2009)

Colorado (1974), Robert Adams

In 1975, when the exhibition was first produced, “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape” met up with a smallish and relatively “unimpressive” crowd. One of the larger rooms of the Eastman House Museum was almost filled yet everything about the William Jenkins production seemed to speak to the unassuming and the subtle. The photographic impact and momentum that would later be felt from this collaborative venture would not have entered the minds of the involved parties, a group which happened to include the former security guard of the Eastman House.

The event would go on of course to be considered a benchmark and a “turning point” if you will. I suppose that this is often how these “benchmark” things work… the “normal” then becomes the “un-normal”, but only when viewing the happening from a spot somewhere way out on that horizon line of the future.

Mobile homes, Jefferson County, Colorado, (1973), Robert Adams

The involved parties in this venture were loosely brought together by personal and professional connections and an association to the Eastman House, an epicenter of photography in the 70′s, albeit, a “smaller world” than the photography community of today. The list of individuals, the majority white, American males (the exception being the Becher’s), would in retrospect read off as a hall of fame of sorts within the photographic community of these modern times. The involved parties were as follows: Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore and Henry Wessel Jr. Whether these individuals would have obtained the exact measure of success to date without this project is a question one could pose and one would likely put forth that the answer would be yes. That being said, that this lowly exhibition of (relatively) limited means, and certainly of modest public attention would ultimately foster an aesthetic or genre, and a new way of thinking and approaching… all of this is of course, rather remarkable. The fostering of an “aesthetic” with longevity is no easy task, nor I suppose, is it really a task. The fostering of an aesthetic with broad influence (or a style of music, or writing, or thinking, etc.) seems to typically be the result of a certain “resonance” or “recognition” that is struck within the context of the work. I suppose that, to a certain degree, the momentum of the “aesthetic/approach” is inclined to then build on itself as it moves forward. At some point, the impact or significance of the “creation” leaves a mark across the “landscape” of the craft that is similar to a road or indent of permanence that others then follow in as their own (influenced) path. So, again, in the context of this “smallish” production would such an “aesthetic fostering” event occur and that this event would leave a permanent mark and light a certain “spark”. Remarkable.

Tract housing, North Glenn and Thornton, Colorado (1973), Robert Adams

The subject of the “aesthetic” or “concept” and execution would be the American Landscape. At a description or literal level, “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape” was an examination on human construction and the consumption done by humans on the massive American landscape at large. To say that the aesthetic of the 168 works, by ten artists is “deadpan” would be perhaps a gross understatement. Also, to say that this aesthetic or approach was straight photography as opposed to the “sublime”, the idealized, the elevated or enhanced by manipulation of treatments… also an understatement. This deadpan element would be both “panned” and “praised” at the time.

In light of the present momentum of the “New Topographic” work, and as a result of the Steidl volume that I will in short “highly recommend”, we should read a bit of the critical reaction at that time and up to present. I think that this may be an interesting way to sum up some of the key elements of this work and also the departure in terms of the opinions and interpretation of the “New Topographic” concept/exhibition/aesthetic/interpretation/critique – let’s read in their words, from the “New Topographics” volume:

Buildings on Tremont Street, Boston (1975), Nicholas Nixon

Of Robert Adams work, one critic wrote that “at times I felt I was looking at pictures made without any human direction by mere machines programmed to go off at set intervals and photograph whatever happened in front of them”

Of Lewis Baltz work another wrote the he “used his camera with finesse” to “esthetic something that in reality has no redeeming esthetic quality”.

Mark Klett, said, “The work in ‘New Topographics’ seemed intentionally boring to me at the time I first saw it. And I disliked the way the photographers seemed to distance themselves from their subjects. Later I began to understand and appreciate the work in different terms.”

Tucson, Arizona (1974), Henry Wessel Jr.

Deborah Bright said (in 1985), “perhaps no exhibition and catalogue were more influential on the course of landscape photography”.

Robert Hirsch has described New Topographics as a method “for photographers who sought to return to the landscape aesthetic without the romantic notions of the picturesque or the sublime”. Also, that the aesthetic is a “style (that) could be feigned (and) brought out an army of imitators.”

2nd Street East and South Main Street, Kalispell, Montana (August 22, 1974), Stephen Shore

In her essay within the Steidl volume itself, Alison Nordstrom says, “It can be argued that the sylelessness that Jenkins attributed to the work of New Topographics was a key to its persistence.” Alison also importantly asserts that “Today the impact of this seminal undertaking has been diluted and complicated by its very popularity.” Finally, Alison aptly sums up the exhibitions impact in the statement, “New Topographics became not only what it was in 1975, but what it has been since.”

“New Topographics” as a volume produced by Steidl, Salvesen and Nordstrom approaches the exhibition, the body of work, the artists involved and its crater-like impact in comprehensive and methodical fashion. Organized in the form of Preface, lengthy essays by Salvesen and Nordstrom, reproduction plates of the work, and then a reproduction of the 1975 catalogue and exhibition checklist, the volume is comprehensive and produced with much care and merit. The volume examines the impact and also the impact of the impact. The volume is “weighty” in terms of the physical, the visual and the intellectual. “Weight” is also an apt terms to describe any of those facets on their own. The volume is a dark grey, minimalistic thing of beauty and an ode and exploration into the event, into its history and into its dynamics. It asks questions and it poses answers.

Certain books contain beauty and emotion, other books contain methodical care, painstaking research and devotion, some intellectual weight and others are weightless and some, a great substance like an ocean. This one has elements of all and leans heavily on the devotion.

Anyone interested in understanding the present, needs to take a look at the connections to the past. Everything is interconnected and in looking at the connections, one might find a circle and a web, instead of a line moving outward toward a horizon…

Here in this volume is a core component for your “library’… and a piece of your web.

New Topographics.
Text by Britt Salvesen, Alison Nordström.
Steidl & Partners, 2009. 256 pp., Illustrated throughout, 11¾x9½”.