New Topographics

About the New Topographics

The 'New Topographics' is a contemporary style of photography that emerged in the USA during the 1970s. The term derives from the 1975 exhibition at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York entitled 'New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape', in which curator William Jenkins presented works by Robert ADAMS, Lewis BALTZ, Bernd and Hilla BECHER, Joe DEAL, Frank GOHLKE, Nicholas NIXON, John SCHOTT, Stephen SHORE and Henry WESSEL. These photographers turned their attention to places and landscapes or sections of landscapes (often urban suburbs) characterized by human intervention. It was not the ideal conception of landscape, but the documentary view of an environment shaped by industry, transportation and the exploitation of nature that became the subject of a new photography critical of civilization. The approach of photographers in this genre is often conceptual.

Reception

The 'New Topographics' is generally understood as the beginning of a new photographic view of the landscape and a drastic change in US landscape photography. Until then, photographers such as Ansel ADAMS and Edward WESTON in particular had defined the ideal of modern American landscape photography, guided by the view of a landscape and nature largely untouched by man.
The impetus provided by the photographers of the 'New Topographic Movement' continues to have an impact on the current generation of photographers. Joachim BROHM, Hans-Christian SCHINK, Michael SCHMIDT, Hildegard OCHSE and Heinrich RIEBESEHL, among others, can be seen as German representatives of this movement with parts of their work. (Text created using a Wikipedia entry, retrieved on 25.01.2024)

Literature about the 'New Topographics'

  • 'New Topographics. Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape' (1975); 'New Topographics' (1999, by Paul Highman); 'New Topographics' (2013, by Britt Salvesen); 'New Topographics. Texte und Rezeption' (2013); 'Reframing the New Topographics' (2013); 'New Topographics and Tomboy. Landscape transformation and photography' (2016, by Akihito Onishi); 'New American Topographics' (2018)

About the photographers associated with and influenced by the 'New Topographics'
  • Robert ADAMS, Lewis BALTZ, Bernd and Hilla BECHER, Joe DEAL, Frank GOHLKE, Nicholas NIXON, John SCHOTT, Stephen SHORE, Henry WESSEL, Joachim BROHM, Hans-Christian SCHINK, Michael SCHMIDT, Hildegard OCHSE, Heinrich RIEBESEHL
Photo books by and with works by photographers associated with and influenced by the 'New Topographics'
  • ADAMS, Robert
    BALTZ, Lewis
    BECHER, Bernd and Hilla BECHER
    DEAL, Joe
    GOHLKE, Frank
    NIXON, Nicholas
    SCHOTT, John
    SHORE, Stephen
    WESSEL, Henry
  • BROHM, Joachim
    OCHSE, Hildegard
    RIEBESEHL, Heinrich
    SCHINK, Hans-Christian
    SCHMIDT, Michael
WESSEL, Henry - Walk About. Man Alone. Botanical Census
WESSEL, Henry - Walk About. Man Alone. Botanical Census
The photo book 'Walk About/Man Alone/Botanical Census' by photographer Henry WESSEL, presents three independent bodies of his work from the past five decades. Each is a precise sequence recreating the experience of passing through the territory described.
65,00 € *
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WESSEL, Henry - Waikiki
WESSEL, Henry - Waikiki
In black-and-white photo volume 'Waikiki', the American New Topographic photographer Henry WESSEL documents the recreational behavior of Americans in the 1970s and 1980s as well as the encroachment on nature using the example of the beach on Honolulu.
58,00 € *
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WESSEL, Henry - Traffic. Sunset Park. Continental Divide
WESSEL, Henry - Traffic. Sunset Park. Continental Divide
Traffic/Sunset Park/Continental Divide' by Henry WESSEL presents three independent bodies of work by the photographer, each being a precise sequence arranged to give the viewer the experience of what it felt like to pass through the territory described.
0,00 € *
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WESSEL, Henry - Retrospective
WESSEL, Henry - Retrospective
This retrospective photo volume about American photographer Henry WESSEL tracks his contribution to the 'New Topographics Movement' of the 1970s and continues through more than thirty years of incisive observations on the American social landscape.
0,00 € *
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WESSEL, Henry - Incidents
WESSEL, Henry - Incidents
'Incident' is a photo volume compiled by Henry WESSEL from 27 previously unpublished photographs. Every incident is recorded decisively and concisely with the aesthetic immediacy of a snapshot. 'As mysterious as a clearly described fact.' (© WINOGRAND)
0,00 € *
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WESSEL, Henry - Hitchhike
WESSEL, Henry - Hitchhike
'Hitchhike' by Henry WESSEL documents his westward journey from the grassy farmlands in the Midwest to the wide, open, dusty landscape further west. The sequences draw from his archive and includes images of barns, gas stations, traveling salesmen....
55,00 € *
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WESSEL, Henry - A Dark Thread - ORIGINAL VERPACKT!
WESSEL, Henry - A Dark Thread - ORIGINAL VERPACKT!
For this volume, 'A Dark Thread', over a dozen renowned noir authors were commissioned to write a short story in response to one or more of Henry WESSEL's b/w photographs. In this first edition, it is French authors and the photographs that inspired them.
28,00 € * Weight 0.2 kg
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The Red Bulli. Stephen Shore and die Neue Düsseldorfer Fotografie
The Red Bulli. Stephen Shore and die Neue Düsseldorfer Fotografie
The focus of the catalog illuminating the early phase of the BECHER school is on the mutual influences between the image concepts emerging in Düsseldorf and the innovations of the 'New-Color Photography' and the 'New Topographics' movement in the U.S..
198,00 € Weight 1.8 kg
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STERNFELD, Joel - When it changed
STERNFELD, Joel - When it changed
Photo volume 'When it changed' is about climate change. Future generations will wonder what our generation did when it began. That's why Joel STERNFELD traveled to Montreal in 2005 to portray the participants of the eleventh UN Climate Change Conference.
25,00 € * Weight 0.5 kg
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STERNFELD, Joel - Sweet Earth. Experimental Utopias in America
STERNFELD, Joel - Sweet Earth. Experimental Utopias in America
The photo volume 'Sweet Earth' by Joel STERNFELD unites what may seem disparate. As the forces of laissez-faire take over the world and threaten the future of the earth, the desire to live with each other and in harmony with nature becomes more important.
0,00 € *
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