The difficult relationship between man, nature and technology. In the late 70s a group of artists under the name New Topographics presented an exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography. Their goal was to break with the traditional concepts of landscape photography, inherited from Romanticism. They sought to represent the actual landscape more than the ideal landscape.
The approach of the New Topographics is totally opposed to classical. It is not an idealized, symbolist, but rather a documentary look. There is not the idea of the vergin landscape but the effects of human activity on nature. It started developing a new aesthetics, new patterns of contemplation. The landscape genre had practically disappeared from European photography. The reason is the lack of scenarios like those in America. This idea had a ripple effect on the whole medium and genre, not only in the USA, but in Europe too where generations of landscape photographers emulated and are still emulating the spirit and aesthetics of the exhibition.
Photos taken with Yashica FX3 Super 2000 on a Kodak Color plus 200.
The approach of the New Topographics is totally opposed to classical. It is not an idealized, symbolist, but rather a documentary look. There is not the idea of the vergin landscape but the effects of human activity on nature. It started developing a new aesthetics, new patterns of contemplation. The landscape genre had practically disappeared from European photography. The reason is the lack of scenarios like those in America. This idea had a ripple effect on the whole medium and genre, not only in the USA, but in Europe too where generations of landscape photographers emulated and are still emulating the spirit and aesthetics of the exhibition.
Photos taken with Yashica FX3 Super 2000 on a Kodak Color plus 200.