Laura Aldington

To what extent did the new topographic movement reflect changing attitudes towards landscape photography?

“Landscape photographs can offer us, I think, three truths- geography, if taken on its own, is sometimes boring, autobiography is frequently trivial, and metaphor can be dubious. But taken together... the three kinds of information strengthen each other and reinforce what we all work to keep in tact- an affection for life.”1

This essay will explore the genre of landscape photography, in particular focusing on the New Topographic movement. The aim of the essay is to evaluate and asses to what extent the New Topographic movement reflects the changing attitudes towards landscape photography. Within this it will therefore come across several other important questions, looking into what is perceived as a landscape, whether aspects of landscape photography may have changed and exploring to what extent the new topographic movement had a role to play in this, if at all. As the aim is to look at changing attitudes towards landscape photography, it may also be considered beneficial when answering the question, to explore political and social factors which may have an influence on landscape photography, and the changing ways people perceive it as a genre.

Defining 'landscape' tends to be controversial. There is a difference between 'land' and 'landscape'. In principle the land is a natural phenomenon, although land in modern times (particularly in the developing and developed world) tends to be subject to human intervention 2. This can be seen through acts such as the industrial revolution, industrialisation, urban sprawl and deforestation. These are all actions projected by man which have a destructive impact on the natural 'land'. As a whole, land can be defined more as an objective and raw physical description of the environment we are surrounded by. The term 'landscape' is conceived as being a social construct. A landscape is something strongly influenced by culture. This is made clear when taking time to compare different locations around the globe. Although landscapes around the world have one fundamental similarity, the presence of physical 'land', the way this land is shaped to reflect individual cultures varies spatially. By this definition, a landscape either holds the presence of, or is altered by people.

Between the 17th and 18th century, landscape as a genre referred to painterly practice which gathered momentum and prestige in European art history. An example of the early genre can be seen by renowned painter Claude Lorrain. Lorrain is emblematic of the early European landscape painting movement. Training in Italy, Lorrain's ability came from his

1 Quote by Robert Adams from his essay beauty in photography,1981

2 Ingrid Pollard, from Pastoral interludes, 1987 Laura Aldington ability to sketch life around Rome and Naples. Combining the best parts, he would unify them to create 'virtual' landscapes.3 Landscape painting was a key influence to the creation of landscape photography as a genre. These early landscape paintings held pictorial values, specifically the concept of the 'picturesque'.

The picturesque is a word derived by the Italian which refers to the view point of the painter, and was elaborated as a theory in England between 1730 and 1830.4 With this in mind, Early landscape painters would use this concept of the picturesque to create secondary representations of the pre-existing world. This was something first established by Italian soon adapted later in the 17th to 18th century by the Dutch. This could be seen in the rise of the merchant bourgeoisie who portrayed a more seemingly natural environment which acclaimed the concept of property ownership. The painters in question would create pieces of artwork depicting land and property owned by the rich and elite. This would include huge country estates with elaborate gardens, often shown from a birds eye plan to exaggerate the sense of scale. These pieces of art work would therefore work as status symbols for the wealthy, often exaggerated and not depicting a true image.

England was next to join this picturesque art movement in the 18th century, following on from the Dutch model. In contrast to this, however, English landscape painting is said to supersede the formulaic qualities of earlier landscape painting with scientific accuracy which reflected the increasing prestige and achievements of rising empirical science and technology. 5 These English landscape painting began inspiring renowned garden designers such as Capability Brown who designed country home gardens to resemble paintings. These gardens were built for the purpose of provoking feeling in contrast to the vernacular, which was present in the land previously. In both the reworked land and the landscape picture, the 'poetic garden' such as that designed by Brown, was a pictorial spectacle designed to arouse the spectator's emotional an intellectual senses.6 The word 'landscape' in English initially referred specifically to Dutch paintings and only later denoted the broader idea of view or prospect.7 The concept of the 'picturesque' is imperative to this day in contemporary discussions about 'beauty' in landscape photography images.

The invention of photography created a dilemma for painting surrounding the issue of 'truth' and 'fidelity' in vision. When photography came about, around the first third of the 19th

3 David Bate from Photography – Key concepts, history of landscape photography

4 3 Ibid

5 Of mother nature and marlboro men- an inquiry into the cultural meanings of landscape photography – Deborah Bright

6 3 Ibid

7 5 Ibid Laura Aldington century, photographers such as Henry Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre exploited the use of early techniques such as metal-based daguerreotype process and paper- based calotype negative and salt process. These early photographs were much more formal, in the end they were capturing a more valid picture of reality, compared to the exaggerated picturesque representations created by the early European landscape painters.

Early photography with its technological innovations and chemistry was seen as more of a science than an art. Landscape photographs were considered as formal, and functional rather than holding conceptual or aesthetic value. Attitudes in general towards photography as an art form were negative, in particular landscape photography, which was seen to strip the aesthetic appeal from what was considered as traditional 'landscape' art as a genre. Representations of landscape historically have served “an upper-crust cultivated taste for aestheticized nature”8. 'Exaggerating the powers of sight necessarily deprives us of the best pleasures of sight.'9 This quote by John Ruskin draws upon the concept that photography as a media of sight, shows too much reality. This links back to the notion of 'beauty in the landscape', a 'philosophy' of art which became important in the development of photographic 'landscapes' as a particular way of seeing. Eventually photographers such as Ansel Adams and Edward Weston began appealing for photography to be classed as an art, rather than a technical science. To go about this they created what was known as the F/64 club, referring to the use of the Aperture F/64 to maintain a large depth of field in their photographs. Adams in particular was known for his landscape photographs depicting the natural beauty of the American West especially in Yosemite National Park. In the 20th century, landscape photography finally gained a sense of presidency in the art world and therefore step forward as a genre.

Landscape photographs by Ansel Adams helped reinforce the image of the American West as an unspoiled wilderness throughout the Cold War era; by contrast, during the post- Vietnam war era, western landscape photography by New Topographic photographers challenged the ideology of such long standing myths of nature and the West.10 The term New topographics is used to refer to the exhibition entitled "New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape". Photographs of a Man-Altered landscape was an exhibition which epitomised a key moment in American landscape photography. 11 The

8 Cultural Landscapes in the 21st Century • Forum UNESCO University and Heritage Landscape and the West: Irony and Critique in New Topographic Photography Kelly Dennis

9 Ruskin's Venetian Notebooks 1849-1850 edited by Iain Bliss, The Ruskin Foundation, Lancaster University.

10 Landscape and the West: Irony and Critique in New Topographic Photography Kelly Dennis University of Connecticut

11 Jenkins, William. New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape. Catalogue. Rochester, NY: International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House, 1975 Laura Aldington exhibition curated by William Jenkins was held at the George Eastman house, New York, in January 1975. and featured the work of 8 then young American photographers: Stephen Shore; Robert Adams; Joe Deal; Frank Gohlke; Nicholas Nixon; John Scott and Henry Wessel with the addition of European couple Bernd and Hilla Becher. Each photographer was represented by 10 prints and in which were black and white with the exception of photographer Stephen Shore who worked in colour. This essay will look into the attitudes of these photographers regarding landscape photography and how these opinions may differ from previous held beliefs around landscape photography as a genre.

The word 'topography' can be defined as the detailed study or mapping of the configuration and surface features of a region12 The new topographic photographers focused their work on exactly this. In one way, or another, all of the new topographic photographers focused their work on man's impact on the landscape, exploring themes of suburbanisation, mass- consumerism and environmentalism. They did this through capturing elements of landscape, often even subtly, to demonstrate how the natural landscape portrayed in the work of earlier photographers, such as Ansel Adams, is not in fact a true representation of a the post-industrial landscape. In contrary, these photographers were photographing against the tradition of nature photography and instead taking an interest in the created landscapes of 70's urban America. The mundane topography was a reflection of both an increasingly suburbanised world around them and a reaction to the tyranny of idealised landscape photography that elevated the natural and the elemental 13 The images by the new topographics photographers, as well as several other photographers of the time including Edward Ruscha carried a political message, whether this was intentionally overt, unconscious or otherwise, there was growing unease about how the landscape is being eroded by increased urbanisation and urban sprawl. The As a collective they were said to post an aesthetic of the banal. 14 The reactions to the exhibition were generally negative. In the end the photographs didn't hold the same aesthetic value that the generic landscape photographs of the time. In other words the exhibition was very controversial, receiving bi polar responses. "What I remember most clearly was that nobody liked it," Frank Gohlke, one of the participating photographers told the LA Times when the exhibition was re-staged last year at the LA County Museum of Art. "I think it wouldn't be too strong to say that it was a vigorously hated show." 15 Curator Jenkins expressed the exhibition as 'anthropological

12 Collins dictionary definition 2013 'topography'

13 The guardian report on new topographics, February, Sean O'Hagan 2008

14 Ibid

15 Quote by Frank Gohlke taken from a guardian extract by Sean O'Hagan 8th February 2010 Laura Aldington rather than critical'16 This in less complex terms means the exhibition was intended to be a study of man-kind and society rather than an ekphrasic art form. Much of the general public didn't understand the concepts behind the exhibition, seeing it as visually boring. One quote in particular “If I were to commission a bunch of authors to write essys on boredom, I would not expect the result to be a bunch of boring essays nor would I give it a pretentious post- modern title”17 demonstrates the negative attitudes which the exhibition widely received. This suggests that at the particular time of the exhibition, the majority of public did not see the exhibition as particularly influential towards landscape photography as a genre.

The New topographic photographers referenced forefathers of American landscape photography in their work. It is widely accepted that many of the photographers work reflected concepts from earlier work such as that of Carelton Watkins and Timothy O'sulivan. Watkins (1829-1916) was an early photographer known for his highly acclaimed photographs in the West of America.18 Although the extent of his work was never fully catalogued, several of his projects have proved seminal to American landscape photography. Watkins photographed early Sans Francisco, Medocino, Yosemite and Sierra Nevada mining regions. His photographs of Yosemite Valley (such as that shown in illustration 1) reflected what has been described by many as a 'rugged beauty'. These images were taken around the year of 1861, in the midst of a brutal civil war, and destruction of man and land. 19President Lincoln at the time saw these images provoking and as a result signed the national park systems bill which protected this small but extraordinary piece of American Wilderness. Watkins images reprise many of the elements featured in paintings by Bierstadt, but add to these the documentary qualities of photography. This could be interpreted as an early start to the environmentalism movement, which could be said to have inspired the more confrontational and documentary approach many of the new topographic photographers later adapted.

This documentary style which the New topographic photographers adapted is what starts to differentiate them from early landscape photographers. This was a style also used by influential photographers Edward Ruscha and Walker Evans. Jenkins, as curator of the new topographic exhibition claimed Ruscha's work to be emblematic of the issues addressed in the exhibition. The quote from Jenkins 'Ruscha made his point with such clarity and renown that his importance as an antecedent to the work under discussion should be obvious' 20 evidences this theory. One of Ruscha's projects entitled "Twenty-six Gasoline Stations

16 William Jenkins “introduction” in New Topographics: photographs of a man altered landscape

17 The guardian report on new topographics, February, Sean O'Hagan 2008

18 CarletonWatkins.org 'about'

19 Metmuseum.org 'exhibition listings' Laura Aldington

(1962)' which can be seen In illustration 2, holds considerable similarities to that of new topographics photographers, for example John Schott's series 'route 66'. Ruscha's series twenty-six gasoline stations is a series of images staging petrol stations, along the highway between Ruscha's home in Los Angeles and his parent's house in Oklahoma City. This collection of 26 black and white images all hold the same seemingly indifferent tone. From the viewpoint of traditional photographic aesthetics, the images as individuals could be considered as technically poor, with awkward angles, open compositions with too much space incorporated into the foregrounds and faulty contrasts. Through this 'deliberate lack of style''21 Ruscha is said to draw attention to the hostile relationship between humans and the natural environment, the same ideology held among the work of the new topographic photography.

Other influences for the new topographic photographers could be interpreted as political or social. The exhibition held in 1975 was amongst a contentious time in American politics. The late 60s and early 70's was witness to war, in particular the cold war (1962-1979) fought between the US and Soviet Union and the Vietnam War (1955-1975) in which 362,147 Americans were either injured or killed. With these events coming not long after the first and second world wars, America along with the rest of the world has experienced a considerable amount of both human and environmental degradation and dilapidation. 1973 proclaimed the oil embargo which had considerable impact on the world global economy. 1974 marked the resignation from office of president Richard Nixon due to political scandals, although throughout his time in power from 1960's-70's many economic changes erupted questioning his leadership. This decade proved shaky for America as they attempt to rebuild them selves from their own detriment. It could be argued that these political plights brought about new social causes, especially environmentalism. On April 22nd 1970, America celebrated the first 'Earth day' which marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement. This up rise in environmentalism could be said to directly link to the new topographic exhibition as the photographs exhibited all denote consideration for environmental degradation on the American landscape which previously had been avoided when portraying the landscape through photography.

This essay will be looking at the work of two of the new topographic photographers in particular (Lewis Baltz and Robert Adams) looking into their incentives for their photographs and their roles in the new topographic exhibition. This allows us to decipher to what extent these landscape photographers may have held different attitudes to other landscape photographers.

20 Reinventing the genre: New topographics and the landscape, Lauren Higbeey

21 Quote by Jeff Wall take n from 'Medien Kunst Net' article '26 gasoline stations' Laura Aldington

The first new topographic photographer that will be analysed in this essay is photographer Lewis Baltz. Baltz's images primarily feature industrial structures and development. Born in Newport, California, in 1945, Baltz grew up to study photography at the Art Institute in San Francisco between the years of 1966-69. Since then Baltz has held down various teaching jobs a professorships, teaching today at the Iistituto Universitario di Architettura in Venice. Baltz first great success was a series of work documenting the office and light industry entitled 'The new industrial parks near Irvine, California, 1974'. Among the 1960's Baltz's work was already turning the landscape genre towards a reduced, minimalistic aesthetic. His early work around in this decade was said to break into the mainstream photographic traditions, revealing pronounced modernist references.22 Baltz manages in his work to extend the notion of the documentary; he "emphasizes the paradoxical position of photography within the art history of its time"23 Baltz's photographs focus on the documenting the side effects of industrial civilisation in areas undergoing construction and development and/or areas which have been built up.

One particularly acclaimed photograph by Baltz displayed at the New Topographic exhibition entitled the new industrial parks near California, 1974 can be seen in illustration number 3. The image depicts an industrial building. In the foreground of the image is a pile of dirt centred in the centre of what appears to be an empty car park. The pile of dirt in the centre of the frame resembles planting beds often located somewhere in a contemporary American car park. This image however denotes a stage of transition, the Earth and ground has been dug up and contained among the structure in the centre of the frame. It could be said that this is holds connotations of man containing and putting restrictions over nature, reflecting the theme of the exhibition 'man's impact on the landscape'. The image is also made up of strong geometric components such as squares and rectangles which add connotations of formality and system. These were values being introduced into American society, referred to as 'Mcdonaldisation' by sociologist George Ritzer. The image by Baltz was taken on black and white 35mm film. This is a change from traditional landscape photography such as that of Ansel Adams who took advantage of large format cameras to capture the finest detail and beauty within the landscapes. Instead the black and white which is a characteristic of all the new topographic photographers other than Stephen shore who was a pioneer for using colour in the landscape genre.

Baltz's image could be said as being criticism of real estate development. The images criticize society as creating modular 'designed' building and how they dominate in form and

22- Industrial structures during painting, Irvine 1974

23- Quote by Sheryl Conkelton , taken from 'www.galeriezander.com' 'Lewis Baltz – about the artist' Laura Aldington arrangement, the lives of those who work and live around them. The approach Baltz takes to capture his photographs means using his lens with an almost scientific detachment and revealing the true nature of man's actions. Although the photographs attempt to present a neutral attitude. they do not seem to refrain from conveying his distrust of the future. The images are ironic and sometimes bitter to what symbolized the west before before the developers began their deprivation. This approach taken by Baltz is similar in characteristic to that of other new topographic photographers for example Robert Adams, John Schott and Frank Gohlke as they capture the infliction of industrialisation on the American West.

One new topographic photographer particularly noted for photographing man's impact on the American West is Robert Adams. Adams is referred to as a chronicler of American's disappearing wilderness – empty streets, pristine trailer parks, rows of standardised tract houses and the steady creep of suburban development alongside it's regulated uniformity.24 Adams' main intentions with his photography was to document the human response to the land. In total, Adams has 15 published book of photography including The New West (1974) and What We Bought (1995), which survey suburban development around Denver, Los Angeles Spring (1986), which explores resilient fragments of the natural world in southern California, and Listening to the River (1994), which records the consolations still to be found in anonymous places in the semi-rural West.25 Adams has been dedicated to observing the heritage of the land in the American west since he began photographing in the 1960's. In his earlier work he looked at the region of eastern California where the rocky mountains meet the great plans. Here Adams captured through his images, scenes of housing tracts and free- ways in clear light, this light revealed at once the 'intrinsic glory of the place as well as it's present fragility'.26

Adams' work begins to give us a clue about how the landscape genre may have began to change around the 1970's. Adams' work was very different from the idealised rhetorical work of the uninhabited west created by photographer Ansel Adams. Ansel Adams work is a corrective mediation on the 19th century's ideal of sublime nature, untouched by man. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the term 'sublime' was associated in particular with the immensity or turbulence of Nature and human responses to it. Consequently, in Western art, ‘sublime’ landscapes and seascapes, often represent towering mountain ranges, deep chasms, violent storms and seas, volcanic eruptions or avalanches which, if actually experienced, would be life threatening. 27 Ansel Adams' work also

24 'www.theguardian.com' February 8th 2010 article entitled new topographics and the American landscape

25 MacArthur Foundation 'www.MacArthurfoundation.org' 'fellows' about Robert Adams

26 Robert Adams, About a photographic journal of re-exploration by Sandra S. Phillips

27 'www.tate.org.uk' displays – art and the sublime Laura Aldington portrayed a landscape of American West apparently untouched by manifest destiny. Manifest destiny is a 19th century belief that American settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent. The idea grew up that white Americans were superior, and that it was America's manifest destiny to expand and encourage 'the American way of life' on the Great Plains. The writer Horace Greeley, who popularised this idea, advised Americans 'Go West, young man'. 28

A sense of Manifest destiny is not something apparent in Ansel Adams' images. Illustration 4 shows a photograph by Ansel Adams entitled The Tetons and the Snake River (1942) . This photograph shows the vast landscape within the American west. In the foreground is shown the winding river leading to the extensive mountain ranges in the background of the frame. Adams took this photograph alongside his other landscape photographs in order to portray a sense of beauty in the natural landscape. This however creates controversy as the photographs taken within nature reserves such as Yosemite Park are protected and therefore have not felt the wrath of Manifest destiny and urbanisation like much of America has. This then raises the question about truth and fidelity within landscape photography and whether landscape photography should portray the landscape as it is, or portray the 'idealised' version of the landscape like that of Ansel Adams.

Beginning with the rise of photography in the mid 19th century, the US has welcomed depictions of the landscape as useful tools in the construction of natural identity and myths. An example of this can be seen in photographs of the American West from the 1860's through to the 1880's which reinforced this concept of manifest destiny in which white Americans hold the right to enjoy and exploit the land for their own benefit. It is evidenced that towards the 1980's these myths began to lose their traction. The way the American west has been photographed throughout the century reflects widely on changes within landscape and this is evidenced when comparing the work of Ansel Adams and Robert Adams.

Illustration 5 shows a photograph by Robert Adams entitled Mobile homes, Jefferson County, Colorado, (1973). Illustration 5 by Robert Adams can be compared to that of Ansel Adams in illustration number 4. Illustration 5 shows the landscape of the West, with the mountain ranges in the background, much like that of illustration 4. However in this image, instead of winding rivers, and dense thriving forests in the foreground, there is a trailer park, with scrupulously positioned mobile homes. When comparing the two photographs the first noticeable discrepancy is that Robert Adam's photograph (illustration 5) is the only one which portrays a human presence where as Ansel Adam's image conveys the landscape of the West as being undefiled. This may suggest that the more contemporary work of Robert

28 'Www.bbc.co.uk' history, moving the great plains, factors encouraging people to go west. Laura Aldington

Adams takes a different approach to capturing the landscape than previous landscape photographers, suggesting a shift in attitudes of the photographers towards the genre.

To assess to what extent the new topographic movement reflects the changing attitudes towards landscape photography, it is necessary to measure to what extent the new topographic exhibition may have influenced photographers post exhibition. Since 1975 when the new topographic exhibition was opened to the public eyes, new topographics has been referenced largely within the art world. “Jumping ahead of time, anyone who's done fine art photography that touches on the man made landscape since 1975 has confronted the new topographic tradition in some way.”29 This shows that even if the exhibition itself didn't influence a change within the genre of landscape photography, it is at least associated as being a signifier, with the transition of landscape photography as a genre. To assess this I will be looking to what extent contemporary photographers may reference the new topographics within their own work.

Soon after the new topographics exhibition (1975), photographer Richard Misrach undertook an ambitious photographic exploration of the west entitled 'Desert Cantos'. Starting in 1979 and ending in 2013, the project saw him document the changes within the environment by various man-made factors such as urban sprawl, tourism, industrialization, floods, fires, petrochemical manufacturing, and the testing of explosives and nuclear weapon by the military30 The American West is seen as an important place within American landscape photography as it is said to be a backdrop to the relationship between man and the environment. Previous to the New Topographic exhibition, the American West was portrayed as being a place of beauty and manifest destiny as shown though the work of photographers looked at in this essay such as Carelton Watkins, Ansel Adams and Timothy O'Sullivan. Following on from this, New Topographic photographer Robert Adams famously transformed the vision of the American West with his images of urban sprawl. Misrach's work references the issues flagged up in the work of new topographic photographers in contrast to the work of the earlier landscape photographers noted previously. This therefore implies that the New topographic exhibition has some holding over photographers post exhibition.

One of Misrach's projects in particular entitled Bravo 20: The bombing of the American West portrays significant environmental and political concern over man's impact on the landscape (an image of which entitled Bomb Crater and Destroyed Convoy, Bravo 20 Bombing Range, Nevada, 1986, from Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West, 1999 can be seen in

29 Simen, www.entusiasms.org 'new topographics and the anxiety of influence'

30 Tucker, Anne Wilkes & Rebecca Solnit. Crimes and Splendors: the Desert Cantos of Richard Misrach. Bulfinch / Museum of Fine Arts Houston, 1996 Laura Aldington illustration 6). Referencing Robert Adam's concerns over the destruction of the American West and Stephen Shore's revolutionary use of large format colour to capture such landscapes, Misrach looked at the impact of US military and nuclear tests on the West.

“It was the most graphically ravaged environment I had ever seen… I wandered for hours amongst the craters. There were thousands of them. Some were small, shallow pits the size of a bathtub, others were gargantuan excavations as large as a suburban two-car garage. Some were bone dry, with walls of “traumatized Earth ”splatterings, others were eerie pools of blood-red or emerald green water. Some had crystallized into strange salt formations. Some were decorated with the remains of blown-up jeeps, tanks, and trucks… the apocalyptic kingdom that the Department of defence has built in the desert west.” 31

The work of Misrach does not just reference the new topographics within its aesthetics, as shown above, it also references the new topographics conceptually. The New topographics exhibition was a novelty when it came to landscape photographers portraying concern for the social, political or environmental landscape through the medium of their images. Since then it's not considered at all unheard of for landscape photographers to create bodies of work around the man-made landscapes such as those in the New Topographic exhibition rather than than the natural landscape.

Edward Burtynsky is a more contemporary photographer, focusing his landscape photography around man's impact on the environment. In turn Burtynsky picks up on similar intentions and concepts to the New Topographic photographers. Burtynsky is a well known Canadian photographer using a large format camera to depict the global industrial landscape. It's argued that the New Topographics in turn has become a photographic style (or movement) characterised by its “flatness, dehumanization, and deception of scale” 32 The same comment has been levied against Burtynsky, whose manufactured landscapes seem to avoid explicit commentary on the industrial alterations they depict, often seemingly beautifying industrial waste and human devastation. In her review of Burtynsky’s 'Manufactured Landscapes', Nadia Bozak writes, “Because Burtynsky systematically aestheticizes industrial civilization’s environmental incursions, his images are marked with an almost insentient detachment and lack of critical positioning that can be troubling”33 These comments made between the two clearly show Burtynsky adopted the contrary beliefs of

31 Quote by Richard Misrach, taken from the book 'Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West'

32 THE NEW TOPOGRAPHICS, DARK ECOLOGY, AND THE ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE OF NATIONS: CONSIDERING AGENCY IN THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF EDWARD BURTYNSKY AND MITCH EPSTEIN FROM A POST-ANARCHIST PERSPECTIVE post by 'Imaginations' journey of cross cultural image studies 'http://www3.csj.ualberta.ca/imaginations/?p=3523'

33 Ibid Laura Aldington the new topographic photographers over the ideologies of the original 'idealistic' landscape photographers.

Illustration 7 shows a photograph by Burtynsky entitled Highway #5, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2009. The image depicts tributary lanes of traffic converging into blocks of densely populated urban sprawl extending on into the horizon; a seemingly endless bisection of the frame and the built landscape. This image clearly holds reference to work of New topographic photographers for example Robert Adams' depiction of sprawling urbanization mixed with the birds eye, high vantage point approach taken from new topographic photographer Joe Deal. The foreground and middle ground of the image depicts a modern and strongly tanited landscape however there appears to be mountain ranges in the background, reflecting the overpowering of the natural landscape by this reinforced man made landscape. This image however in this sense can be easily compared to the image by Robert Adams shown in illustration 5.

When assessing to what extent the new topographic movement reflected changing attitudes towards landscape photography, it is firstly necessary to assess to what extent attitudes to landscape photography may have changed. Throughout this essay, the key changes within landscape photography have been investigated. From early painted landscaped through to contemporary landscape photography, there has always been attention drawn to the natural and cultural landscape as an art and way of documentation. The new topographic exhibition in 1975 has arguably taken a more formal and documentary approach to capturing the landscape which was previously depicted as being pristine and untouched, especially seen in the American West with photographers looked at such as Ansel Adams and Carleton Watkins.

This change in approach therefore is representative of a change in attitudes from the photographers themselves, or at least what is seen as being the 'norm' within landscape photography as a genre. In answer to this question, attitudes towards landscape photography have changed over the course of the decade considerably. To what extent the new topographic exhibition influenced this change is questionable and highly subjective. The new topographic exhibition was revolutionary within the landscape photography genre, flagging a movement towards conceptualism and minimalism which hadn't been given a place in the genre before hand. It is important however to take into consideration outside influences within this. All photography is going to be dictated by a change in subject, so as a result it is inevitable landscape photography is going to change just as much as the rapidly developing landscape.

In conclusion, It could be said that the new topographic exhibition acted as a catalyst for a change in the way landscape photographers portrayed the landscape. The 'movement' Laura Aldington following the exhibition allowed for a shift of aesthetic moving away from the picturesque. As a result more landscape photographers have adopted this same aesthetic alongside a more conceptual approach to their landscape photography. It is arguable however that the new topographics caused this change, it is more likely that the exhibition acted as an indicator for this underlying development, allowing more artists and viewer's to challenge their own conceptions. Either was, it is clear that the new topographic has been highly influential to many contemporary landscape photographers attitudes as evidenced by references across their work. Laura Aldington

Illustration

1: Stream with Trees and Mountains, Yosemite Valley, California, Carelton Watkins

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2: Twenty Six Gasoline Stations by Ed Ruscha 1963 Laura Aldington

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3: 'The new industrial parks near Irvine, California, Lewis Baltz 1974'

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4: The Tetons and the Snake River (1942) Ansel Adams Laura Aldington

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

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6: Richard Misrach, Bomb Crater and Destroyed Convoy, Bravo 20 Bombing Range, Nevada, 1986, from Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West, 199 Laura Aldington

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7: Edward Burtynsky, Highway #5, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2009