New Topographics

The New Topographics was a term created by William Jenkins in 1975, it described a group of American photographers whose work had a similar banal aesthetic; they were formal, mostly black and white prints of urban landscapes. Many of the photographers that were associated with new topographics were inspired by the man-made, their subject matters were things that were matter-of-fact. They had an exhibition at the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York featuring their works, the photographers with their work revealed growing unease of how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial developments. This was different to the current landscapes that everyone was seeing as it was during the time of the pictoralism, a large amount of these landscapes were seen with such beauty and to be sublime where as this work looked at the subject objectively with no sentimental feeling, the images had a wide tonal range, fine grain and lots of detail.

Pitheads 1974, Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher.

Part of New Topographics, Bernd and Hilla Becher worked collaboratively together, documenting industrial German structures. They began their first project in the late 1950's.
The idea, they said once, 'is to make families of objects', or, on another occasion, 'to create families of motifs' - objects or motifs, that is, they continued, 'that become humanised and destroy one another, as in Nature where the older is devoured by the newer'.
Their goal was to create photographs that concentrated on the structures, avoiding any subjective interpretations. They found that structures are the 'architecture of engineers' and that their photos should be seen as the photography of engineers - record pictures. The composition in their photographs was clearly well thought about, being technical about it and looking at each side of the industrial structures at the same vantage point and distance away. They would take the photos on overcast days, so that there was a lack of shadows to enable their images to have great clarity. They would use similar lighting conditions throughout so that all of their prints would roughly have the same range of black, grey and white tones, trying to get as accurate recording of the structures as possible.
In the early 1960's they began to only show their work in typological groups, their Typologies are most often grids of black and white photographs, in which each picture in the grid is a different example of a type of industrial building or structure.
New topographics work has influenced the work that i have created for this project so far and will continue to do so as i find this approach to my subject is working well; looking at is objectively while being interested in its growth/change over time.

The Tetons and the Snake River, 1942, Ansel Adams.

This image by Ansel Adams is an example of what new topographics were avoiding in their work, there was no sense of this beauty in their images, unlike here where it is seen as showing the beauty in the natural world, creating such a sublime image. Sense of attraction to these images, able to gain feelings for them and view them as more than what they are, it can make you think that lots of the world is like this though it is slowly being destroyed. Through use of vantage point it makes you think that the scene flows on outside of the frame even though it may not. Ideally this is what i would like to avoid in my work that i create.




Sources:
http://www.tate.org.uk/context-comment/articles/long-look-bernd-hilla-becher
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/bernd-becher-and-hilla-becher-718
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/08/new-topographics-photographs-american-landscapes