Reframing the New Topographics

Can striking landscape photography feature warehouses and parking garages? Are man-made structures as important as nature-made ones? In 1975, a collection of Los Angelesbased photographers shattered the typical image of Western landscape photography, previously dominated by sweeping vistas and pristine wilderness . Featured in the exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, they challenged viewers with images of often banal subjects such as strip malls or power lines and changed the course of landscape photography. Organized by William Jenkins for the George Eastman House, New Topographics showcased photographs by Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, and others. More than three decades after that pivotal show, Reframing the New Topographics offers the first substantive analysis of the exhibition. Essays discuss aesthetics and techniques, examine the social and political contexts of landscape representation, and analyze the works' continued influence on both photography and environmentalism.