Monday, November 15, 2010

Lewis Baltz and the New Topographics






Lewis Baltz and the New Topographics movement influenced the entire genre of American landscape photography. The focus of the movement shifted to man made landscapes that were stripped of any beauty in the traditional sense. Instead, the phrases "a problem of style", ".. deadpan humor and a casual disregard for the importance of the images" come to mind and more accurately portray the style. It's not just specifically Lewis Baltz's images that I find amazing, but rather that the exhibition "New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape" curated by William Jenkins, had such a long lasting impact on the entire art world. The exhibition (which was at the Kodak house) included such big names as Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Stephen Shore, Bernd And Hilla Becher; it is pretty clear from the role list how deadpan worked its way into contemporary landscape photography.


~Mike H.



1 comment:

  1. I too share your interest in the work of Lewis Baltz, although, unless I'm mistaken, he was one of only two of the New Topographics 'movement' who were shooting on 35mm.
    I don't like to be picky, but there are many students searching for information on here, me included!

    ReplyDelete