'New Topographics' Book Review

New Topographics
By Britt Salvesen with Alison Nordstrom
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Steidl & Partners (February 1, 2010)

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TOP review by Geoff Wittig

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The 1975 New Topographics exhibition at George Eastman House is widely considered a watershed event, rivaled in influence only by Edward Steichen's Family of Man exhibition. At the time, photography-as-art still meant black and white photography almost exclusively. Landscape photography in the romantic/modernist idiom (i.e. Ansel Adams, Wynn Bullock, et al.) was increasingly regarded as an irrelevant throwback.

Curated by William Jenkins, the exhibition displayed the work of a group of young photographers marked by a detached, clinical, almost wry æsthetic. Rather than romantic grand landscapes, visitors were presented with unsentimental images of tract houses in Colorado, or downtown Boston, or tacky motels in New Mexico. Also included were some of Bernd and Hilla Becher's photographs of industrial relics. Despite the almost pedestrian subject matter, the quality of the modestly sized prints was exceptionally good. Most were shot on large format film, though Lewis Baltz used Kodak Tech Pan film in 35mm size with results that were surprisingly similar.

It would be difficult to exaggerate the subsequent influence of this exhibition. It characterized a seismic shift in landscape photography away from the romantic/heroic mode toward the ironic and documentary. Most of the photographers exhibited went on to acclaimed careers: Robert Adams, Nicholas Nixon, Stephen Shore, Frank Gohlke and of course the Bechers have all been extremely influential in fine art photography. Many of them cited Walker Evans as a seminal influence on their own work.

The Center for Creative Photography and George Eastman House have teamed up with art publisher Steidl to create a superb new book on this seminal exhibition. It is published in concert with an encore exhibition of the New Topographics, touring now.

The design and physical format of the book admirably suits its intent. It is covered in simple grey cloth, with the title and photographers' names deeply embossed in white ink. This lettering precisely reproduces that of the original 1975 exhibition catalogue. The utterly pedestrian Times Roman typeface and simple page design likewise fit the goal of straightforward, unsentimental documentary presentation.

The first section of the book is a long essay by Britt Salvesen which places the original exhibition in historical context, and includes interviews with some of the photographers. Next is an essay by Eastman House curator Alison Nordstrom discussing the subsequent influence of the original exhibition in academia and print, right down to today's New Topographics group on Flickr (no, really!).

Following the essays are beautifully reproduced images from each photographer, in alphabetical order. The photographic reproductions are ideally sized: large enough to study, but with enough margin to handle the book. The Bechers' images are reproduced as "grids" of individual photographs, as intended. Stephen Shore's images, the only ones in color, perfectly convey his customary subdued palette.

Next is a complete reduced-scale photoreproduction of the original exhibition catalogue (sample above). In the same spirit as the Errata Editions reproductions of classic photobooks, the page layout and design are demonstrated.

Following this facsimile section are thumbnails of every photograph in the exhibition, noting the image's size and directing you to the page where it is reproduced. Finally, the book concludes with a very thorough bibliography, which is itself a testament to the immense influence of the original exhibition. It's a great resource for those interested in exploring the subject further.

This beautiful book is the catalogue for the encore of the New Topographics exhibition, which opened at George Eastman House in June of 2009. Currently at the Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona, the show will travel to San Francisco's Museum of Modern Art in July before heading to Europe in November. By all means, see the exhibition if you have the chance. Having repeatedly (obsessively!) visited the show in Rochester, I can honestly say it's well worth your while. Compared to today's gigantic print sizes, the modest but superbly printed images are striking in their own quiet way.

Geoff

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Original contents copyright 2010 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.

Comments

[Vinegar Tom]

"utterly pedestrian Times Roman typeface"??

That's fighting talk, especially in this context. "Artfully transparent", more like.

I note that date: 1975. Just wait for the chorus of "But I just don't get it" ... That wave went through thirty five years ago, and people are still talking as if all the thoughtful, interesting work that followed was a direct threat to their sanity.

But, I suppose if you think all photography aspires to the condition of National Geographic or Magnum, then it may be.

VT

[Ken Tanaka]

Thank you for this review, Geoff. It's quite timely for me, as I've looked at that catalog recently and have considered traveling to SFMoMA to see the show this summer.

[paul logins]

Great article in today's Gizmodo.com
by Greg du Toit - 'Blood,Sweat and
Photographic Tears'

[mani]

Thanks for the heads-up - bought from your UK link.

[Gavin McLelland]

I had a few snatched minutes on London's Picadilly and nipped into Hatchard's where I saw this book on sale.
I have a soft spot for linen covered books and I loved the sober colour and the typeface. I had determined to buy a book (I don't often get the chance to browse like this) whilst some other gaudy (anything is gaudy compared to this) were tempting; the cool, frank photographs won me over.

[Phil Kempster]

Thanks Mike but I bought a copy at "Paperchain" in Canberra, three weeks ago! It's a great companion volume to George Tice's Urban Landscapes that I got the week before. Nirvana.

[Yuanchung Lee]

A good review as usual by Geoff, but this book seems the epitome of the curatorial circle-jerk (pardon my french), one curator celebrating another curator's triumph as if the work of the real artists (i.e., the photographers) were merely epiphenomenal and entirely contingent on their serendipitous recognition by The Great Curator. The unnecessarily exact reproduction of publishing-related minutiae is another manifestation of the same -- as if the book designer were the real artist here, not the photographers.

I get it -- curators are important, and so are book publishers / designers. But denizens of the art world sometimes love themselves too much, mistaking the gloss for the substance. To paraphrase our 42nd president, It's the pictures, stupid. And I just want to see those pictures; I don't need to see tiny pictures showing how these pictures were displayed in a book published 35 years ago (no more "Errata Editions" for me, thank you).

Oh, alright. I grant that someone interested in photography history, or art photography as a phenomenon, or collecting photo-related media, could find this book interesting.

In any event, the influence of New Topographics photographers cannot be denied. But is it possible to be overly influential? Can the world absorb one more Emerging Artist-Photographer producing yet another series of ironic, detached landscapes of the man-made world?

[Mike Johnston]

"It's the pictures, stupid. And I just want to see those pictures; I don't need to see tiny pictures showing how these pictures were displayed in a book published 35 years ago"

Yuanchung,
It's clear that the record of the exhibition catalog is just a small part of the book, right? There are plenty of pictures in the book, presented normally, like in any other photo book.

Mike

[Geoff Wittig]

Yuanchung Lee-
An interesting comment. On one level it is indeed all about the pictures, and any externally imposed meaning ("structure" in current art-speak) should take a back seat to what the images have to say for themselves. But—not to go all meta on you—there are billions of pictures out there, and most speak to no one but their creator. A relative handful of photographs reach a wider audience. This particular 1975 exhibition by contrast continues to have influence all out of proportion to the rather modest number of people who saw it at the time. This new catalogue gives readers a chance to decide for themselves whether the attention is justified.

I've seen a lot of exhibits over the years, and from the perspective of an interested amateur, many display a curator's procrustean attempt to cram the most tenuously connected images into an ill-fitting conceptual box. Yet occasionally a curator really hits on something that makes an exhibit a bit more than the sum of its "parts"—i.e. the individual photographs. By common consensus, New Topographics is one of them. You are surely free to disagree.

[joe]

Mike
I attended the opening of the show in Tucson, and Bill Jenkins, Frank Gohlke, and Britt Salveson had a panel discussion to talk about the origins of the show, and to a lesser extent reflect on it 35 years after the fact. Some of the talk was verbatim from the text, and I think also people inclined to this type of photography are not inclined to talk 35 years later about how significant or important they were. But what was cool was hearing the obvious joy they took in doing this. IMHO, the highlight was when an audience member (and I think the lone attendee who was also at the original show) commented that in 1975, Ansel Adams was the Oedipal father of 35 years, fit to be slain. Lo and behold it's 35 years later so (to the panel): "It's 35 years after the fact. Who's going to kill you?" .

[Leigh Higginson]

Dear Mike,
I came across this site by chance some of it put a smile on my face (check out the mug shots) hope it does the same for you. I got the camera out of it's bag today for the first time in month's another 80 to go for my 100. It's the printing I have trouble with, when i edit my files for printing I end up convincing myself it's a waste of paper and ink. I'm thinking of changing the way of working, instead of saving them up for a print run I'll print 1 or 2 from every session that way I've only got to pick the best of a few. I'ts the sound of the cleaning cycle that grieves me. I live Cornwall England its the bit that hangs off the southwest corner on the map, so if the sun shines again tomorrow I think I'll go see if the beach is still there.
How about filling a memory card instead of shooting a few rolls (an 512meg card 8 meg camera = 64 pictures) that seems a reasonal amount.
thanks very much for TOP it makes my day, keep up the good work much appreciated. Leigh.
http://www.oddee.com/item_97006.aspx

[Jeffrey Goggin]

Coincidentally, my copy of this book arrived today and to be honest, I was a bit disappointed by the reproductions on my initial pass through it. It will be interesting to see how they compare to the prints when I see the exhibit in Tucson next month.

[Paul Mc Cann]

Anyone have info on when this exhibition will come to Europe. I tried the Eastman House site but could find no further information there. Tried to sign up for their email news but had to give up when it insisted I select a U.S. state despite letting me select a different country.
And what do you know but not all countries have zip codes either.
Paul Mc Cann

[Ahem]

So this exhibition is to blame for 35 years of drab, dull and uninspiring "art" photography?

Just saying that some of us prefer beauty over this. And no, ugliness as beauty is still ugly.

[Geoff Wittig]

Paul-
From the Center for Creative Photography website:
New Topographics will continue to travel to several national and international exhibition spaces including: the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (July 17 – October 3, 2010); Landesgalerie, Linz, Austria (November 10, 2010 – January 9 2011); Die Photographische Sammlung Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, Germany (January 20 – March 28, 2011); the Nederlands Fotomuseum, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (June 25 – September 11, 2011); and Museum of Fine Arts, Bilbao, Spain (October 17, 2011 – January 8, 2012).

Geoff.

[David Dyer-Bennet]

I do think it's possible to be too influential. Arguably Tolkien has been, in fantasy (Lord of the Rings is great, but I do think many of the things most obviously influenced by it are NOT). Sometimes, in hindsight, an influence is bad, too.

[Barry Reid]

Just been to the Photographers Gallery in London, which has a fantastic bookshop, and had a look at this and a few other recent books. It will go on my shopping list as it's an important moment and I'd like to read the texts.

I think one of the interesting aspects of this book as a record of a photo-historical moment, however, is not just the subject but that it's at the exact point that Colour is about to take over. The relationship between colour and mono work would be very different now.

To my eyes at least, Stephen Shore's work still feels like Modern photography 35 years on. Consequently, I find Shore's images significantly more appealing than the Mono work of his Peers in the show.

At the same time looking around the bookshop as a whole I had to wonder if there was a faint echo of the bottom of the deadpan barrel being scraped. A lot of books are either titles like 'Church Signs Across America' containing exactly what they say, or books of equally banal imagery with conceptual titles. Neither type generally hitting the mark, as there rarely seems to be that vitality to most of them, once you 'get' the idea you'll not want to look again. maybe it's just that while there are more photo-books and Monographs than ever there really aren't more great photographers.

[Dennis Ng]

@Ahem: I have similar position as you but I like and advocate diversity. There is different opinion on the Adam and Weston photos (which I like very much). I would keep different perspective. I think those pictures are better the impossible project photos at least.

See Deborah Bright Of Mother Nature and Marlboro Man ( http://www.deborahbright.com/PDF/Bright-Marlboro.pdf ) and later KELLY DENNIS Landscape and the West: Irony and Critique in New
Topographic Photography ( http://conferences.ncl.ac.uk/unescolandscapes/files/DENNISKelly.pdf ).

[Ed Buziak]

Mike... for those photographers who don't normally click on 'design' links - like Design Observer - there's a good review there of the "New Topographics" work, by Brian Rosa, under the heading "Frank Gohlke: Thoughts on Landscape"... http://places.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=12888