Robert Adams “Tract House, Westminster, Colorado” 1974, gelatin silver print.

by Caroline Newman

“New Topographics: Photography and the Man-Altered Landscape,” currently at LACMA, explores the man-altered landscape through ten fascinating perspectives.  This use of different viewpoints of the photographer underlines the fact that photography is an art form with it’s own characteristics, unlike the often assumed role of photography as documentary. “New Topographics” was first exhibited in 1975 at the International Museum of Photography, George Eastman house.  At the time the predominant view of photography was that it was purely documentary, but the exhibit clearly demonstrated that it is art.   This exhibit helps all of us understand why well-crafted photographs need to be viewed and understood as art.  Rooms are dedicated to the ten different original artists; Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Henry Wessel Jr., and Stephen Shore.

What is most fascinating about “New Topographics” is that all ten photographers are photographing the same subject matter, yet using different techniques.  The viewer is able to see the subject matter through the artist’s own eyes and to better understand photography as art.  Examples of each artist’s unique approach to the same subject matter can best be drawn from comparing the works of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal, and Henry Wessel Jr.  Robert Adams has both landscape and close-up images depicting rural life.  Old motels, trailers and residential homes with bright sun and strong shadows on them are depicted. Continue reading ‘One Subject Through Ten Perspectives’