AMERICAN TOPOGRAPHICS
Of the various genres assigned tothe plurality of contemporary
‘American photographicactivity, social documentary and landscape are
the two areas in which the majority of photographers are most avidly
‘engaged. The attitude toward American society indicated by Robert
Frank with the publication of The Americans in the fities proves
exemplary, and subsequent social documentary photographers
adhered tothe principle of expressing an emotional response toward
the worl, Similary, the traditon of American landscape protography,
‘as exemplified by Edward Weston and Ansel Adams, wesbased on the
‘notion of eliciting an emotional commitment toward the sublime. The
‘American landscape became "an Emersonian metaphor for the
Romantic consciousness that creates itself in the course ofits
perceptions, andin doing so gets tothe divine source ofall creation”.
\When the photographs of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz and Joe Dea}
were first shown together with other American photographic artists
under the collective tite New Topographics at George Eastman House
in 1975, anew sensibilty was detected amongst the energent
‘generation of American photographers. This sensibilty resided in the
appearance of the photographs that, to many cities, belied alack of
‘emotional commitment on behalf of the photographerstoward their
subject mater, Further, since the photographs appeared to
‘encompass both traditional landscape and man-made constructions,
‘Ough nearly always excluding people, it was dificult locate the
work within the existing catagories. It ssemed that fortis new
{generation of photographers, seriousness and credibilty required an
appropriation of architectural imagery to landscape phctography,
though without iting into either genre as they had hitherto existed
Throughout the critical allegations of coolness, ofstance, banality and
even anti-photography, aproblem emerged in reading crretrieving the
work of these photographers.
‘The definition of topographic from Websters New Twentietn Century
Dictionary is “the detailed and accurate description of «particular
place, city, town, district, state, parish or tact of land”. Accordingly
each photographer records some aspect ofthe envirormentin which
he places himself. Joe Deal photographs from the hillsand elevated
vantage points of California and looks down and across the details of
houses, roads, rocks, fields etc. Robert Adams works erally from the
Missour to the Pacific, where evidence of man is seenin relation to
large expanses ot land and sky. Lewis Baliz moves from distant
landscape views of anew city, toclose-upinspections ofthe buildings
themselves, And so on, Whal emerges from this activity are
‘sequences of photographs that describe the way man has established
himself within the environment, specifically the Wester» States of
‘America, the old frontiers that produced a legacy of fact and myth
nique to the American people.
‘The development of photography and the recording of the American
Western landscape during the nineteenth century coincided with a
{growing interest in natural history and scientific theory. The
introduction ofthe wet collodion glass plate enabled photographers to
reproduce exceptionally detalad pictures of assertive scale, often
employing gigantic cameras especially constructed to do lustice both
tothe magnitude and complexity oftheir landscape subjects and tothe
prevalent philosophic and religious ideals. Soon after Darwin's writing
‘on the origin ofthe species, publisned in 1859, the geologist Louis
‘Agassiz, a student of Alexander von Humbot, itt Europe to
‘commence lecturing at Harvard, Ouring1883 the scientist Clarence
king attended Agassiz's lectures and formulated the theory of
ccatastrophism which, wit its deeply sociorelgious implications, was
based on the premise thalthe earth was subject to sudden and violent
{geological upheavals. For King, tne proof of the Creator was nature
‘sel; the form, shape and structure of nature were universal symbols
‘of God, and the harmony of nature's forms was the manifestation of a
divine and ilimitable intellect. When King employed Timothy
Sullivan as photographer on the Fortieth Paraliel Survey of 1867, in
‘an attempt to gather visual evidence forthe Universalist theary, the
photographs were meant as didactic ilustrations of recent violence
that King thought would be effaced by a new Eden,
‘The photographs in their verisimiltude provided for the convergence
of science, theology and ar in post-Civil War America and were
‘greatly admired by their contemporaries. They established a
landscape genre in photography that nits transparency was most
conducive to the revelation ofthe magnificent, natural forms of the
West. But itwas essentially their opacity, the abilty to convey the
philosophical intentions of their authors, that interestedlater American
photographers, Whilst the theoretical ideas of these photographers
‘elected the pervading social thinking ofthe time; exactitude, religion,
adventure; by the turn of the century artists, perhaps overwhelmed by
the manifestation of American economic expansion began utlsing hat
opacity as an expression of individual aspirations,
\Wrting about the photograph The Steerage, which he made in 1907,
Alfred Stieglitz outlined a particular sensiilty which pointed toward a
reading of the photograph as a psychological metaphor.
“I saw shapes related to each other. | saw a picture of shapes and
underlying that ofthe feeling | had about lfe.. Rembrandt came into
‘my mind and | wondered would he have felt as | was feeling. for
here would be apicture based on related shapes andon the deepest
human feeling, a step in my own evolution, a spontaneous
discovery."=
‘The move toward symbolism that Stieglitz advocated had beenexpressed by the followers of Madame Blavatsky and the school of
‘Theosophy. This movement, which had already influenced Stieglitz
through the work of Maurice Maeterinck, believed in a Patonic notion
of realty, which held that somewhere there ex'sted an ultimate idea of
reality, which could be communicated through form in Ar. Wassily
Kandinsky, in his manifesto Conceming the Spirtual in Ar futher
declared that artists could exoress thelr inner needs through
abstraction. By the time that Stieglitz made his sequence of
photographs Equivalents in tre nineteen-twenties this abstraction
through the use of metaphorwas complete, even othe point of
equating photographs with music.
Following from the ideas of Stieglitz, Minor White developed his own
notion of Equivalence and fonnulated various ‘levels of
‘consciousness’ that were atinable through looking al photographs:
“When any photograph functions fora given person as an Equivalent
we can say that a that moment and for that person the photograph
acts as a symbol or plays the role ofametaphor for something thatis
beyond the subject photographed."*
Hore White recalls Jung's hypothesis of the archetypal symbol, Jung
hela that in certain types of at there are present archetypal images 10
which viewers respond because they str up residual experiences of
the same kind which have occured to mankind for so long that they
have been passed on to each generation in he structure ofthe brain,
“The danger here is to confuse the truly archetypal image andthe image
that has been so continually played upon by the media, thatities atthe
ro9ts of our experience of deciphering the codes of mass culture. It
was this trap that Minor White slipped into, notaby with the
photographs assembled in Gctave of Prayer. At that point cliche and
archetype became confused, and the archetypes that nad been
‘appropriated by the media info the realm of kitsch, lead both cliche and
archetype to become synonymous.
‘The vertical dimension of metaphor advocated by Stieglitz and White
was in a strict relationship to he consciousness ofthe photographer. It
was used to communicate an emotion or psychological state held by
the photographer through the photograph tothe viewer. This method
Of internalisation exercised z large infuence within American
photography, developing alengside ideas linked to psychoanalysis
and reiterated amongst a generation of poets and writs, More
important, it established a method of reading or retrieving
jphotograns which emphasised the biography ofthe photographer
{devoid from the complex of cultural contexts, Whet distinguishes the
‘work of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal from their
contemporaries is that they have essentialy rejected this,
internalisation process, Instead, the photographic series of each of
these photographers bulds nto an external metaphor, one that tells us
something about the real word,
“One of the things that maces the photographers in ‘New
Topographics' diferent is thal they are not only not involved in
cultural problem solving, out they are refusing tobe involved in
personal problem solving through their photography either. "«
\When Witiam Henry Jackson photographed the Garden of ne Gods
In Colorado in the eighteen-eighties, ne conferred upon the rock
formation a dominance within the picture that reflected his own
sense of awe and respect toward the landscape. in order to give a
‘sense ofits vast scale and significance, ne positioned a human figure
atts base, silhouetted against alight sky that emphasised the
‘dramatic form and texture ofthe rock. Acentury later, Robert Adams’
eatment of light with nis portrayal of the same subject, dects our
aitention towards the mythical characteristics of the place, whist
lluminating its modern accessibility. Adams’ photograph was made
‘at night, and the large rock formations whicn gave rise to the name
Garden of tne Gods are seen as black shapes barely discernible
againstthenight sky. The Gods, itwouldseem, are no longer visible,
they have lost whatever hald on our consciousness they may once
have held, and the garden has become, terlly, an asphalt car park.
‘Through the beam ol acar's headlights, stretcning diagonally across
the lowar contre ofthe picture, we perceive the markings that direct
Visitors tothe spot, as tnough the desire o experience this piace was
satiated by a tourist mentally of consumption tnrough the
‘windscreen of a car. When Jackson placed the figure against the rock
he was directing his contemporaries toward the vastness of nature,
indicating that the American West would be a potential source of
spiritual redemption as wellas a test of man’s ingenuity in
establishing himsetf within te environment, Adams’ picture reveals
the extent ofthat potential, not by telling us the story, but by
vvisualsing the traces of human activity upon that place,
Ini earlier work Prairie, The New West and Denver, Adams sought
the details of suburban development around Colorado, wherehe lives.
‘Around the vast unpromising terran, flatands and prairie, ne
documented signs of ite by concentrating on the exposed housing
developments that had proliferated aver the last twent
along the easter slope of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The
reductive style of the pictures, whilst alluding to aspects of Minimalism,
was an attempt to relate the inhabited regions tothe praiies and
‘mountains surrounding them, giving each equal emphasis. Thismeant
that in open country the traces of lf, which at first glance seemed
slight, revealed themselves in abundance through slow, careful
‘scrutiny ofthe photographs.
‘The intense noon light that pervades Colorado was utlsed by Adams
‘as an integral part of The New West. Since his intention was to show
the details of man's settlement on the land, in order to say something
about the world out there, and not merely his own psychological state
within that place, a major aspect of the work was to retain this intenselight in the appearance ofthe prints. With this recognition we gain an
understanding ofthe life of settlers in the West. Enhanced by the
ssquare format, the photograpis have a static quality, in which people
are seen behind the artifacts they have created or inside buildings,
Under bleached white skies,
‘The new work, From the Missouri West, proceeds almost as ajourney,
{rom the shores of the Missouri to the Pacific coast, and establishes &
redefinition ofthe landscapes seen by the pioneer photogaphers,
‘Adame’ views locate us within vast spaces, often trom elevated
viewpoints, and his camerarezords in precise detal the naturalterrain.
Yet within each view, man's imposition on the lands shown through
the accumulation of evidence. In one picture we see the pitted, scrub~
Covered hills receding into the distance. Across the intricate detal of
jagged rock and bush we note the gradual erosion ofthe hills made
evident by the subsiding rocks, whilstto the eft homesteads nestle or
the promontory overiooking the canyon. Although these houses
‘appear to be isolated, away from the city the tile dispels this notion —
"Near Lyons, Colorado ~ indicating a space outside ofthe photograph, a
Continuous landscape, constantly unfolding, These photographs
‘consistently reveal the marksof an absent presence, as in Quarried
‘mesa top, Pueblo County, Colorado, where dit track drivers have lft
behind a network of tyre marks. Again in South from Rocky Flats,
Jefferson County, Colorado, Adams has positioned his camera to
‘show a foreground of curved lyre tracks echoing the bend ofthe road
to the right of the picture, Everywhere the evidence of roadsis to be
found, whether as thin lines surrounding the mountains ~ Clear cutand
burned, gast of Arch Cape, Oregon ~ or as clearings before
construction - Development Road through Cedars, Pueblo County,
Colorado — accessibility is always of major concern,
‘The remorseless appropriation ofthe land continually teste man's
ability to stabilise the forces ofnature, The signs ofthis activity seem to
‘manifest themselves everywrere, inacountry wnere the only truly wild
places are those that society has deemed as ‘natural wilderness’. Yet
ami the development of suburbs, the construction of highways and
the industry of fut production and forestry, Adams photographs
seem to question this approp ation, asf fora while this process was
held in abeyance. By carefuly selecting the moment of exposure, the
pictures allow us to consider what sunlight and shadow reveal and
‘conceal. n the two photogaphs, Northeast from Flagstaff Mountain,
Boulder County, Colorado, and On top of Flagstaff Mountain, Boulder
County, Colorado, we look down from the mountain and across the
lowlands. The distant horizon seems lost in haze and the city merges
with the landscape into the grey tone of the sky. By contrast the light
reveals a wealth of detail inthe hil, whilst deep shadow almost
‘obscures the loop of road atthe base of the mountain
One etect of these pictures could be to make us feel isolated, on the
Periphery of cities or human zctvity, and this is perhaps the best
vantage point for assimilating what we have done. And yet the
photographs, since they show areas not unlike those with which we are
familia, the penumbra of westernised landscape, tend to dispel the
estrangement thet we feel when confronted with images depicting the
‘more grandiose aspects ofthe natural world. The indication is not of a
sublime redemption, but that perhaps now our sights have been
lowered, that Americans have amore realistic perspective of what can
‘and cannot be achieved on the land,
‘The landscape tradition of American photography in which Robert
‘Adams is engaged is essentially tat of nature depicted. His
photographs prompt us toward a recognition thatthe ideas o!apristine
nature are pertiaps no longer tenable. in this respect his work defies
the limitations imposed by a definition of natural landscape. The
indication is that the land and its usage isa social condition, defined by
the needs of society. How that usage manifests itselland the condition
under which society cultivates that environment becomes the
‘motivation behind the work of Lewis Baltz and Joe Deal respectively.
In 1995 the Federal Government instigated an historical section of the
Resettlement Administration, later to be known as the Farm Security
‘Administration, to document the state of America during the
Depression, This involved emplaying photographers to produce
pictures that would dramatise the plight of the urban poor. Working
together with writers they evolved a form in which they could exaress
What they recognised asa symptom, notiustofa change in individuals’
lives fromthe rural south to theccites, butratner te resetlementof an
entire society, By adopting techniques which were aready being
developed in European photography they directed the viewers
altention toward the conditions oftheir subjects, through carefully
selected viewpoints, dramatic lighting effects and the juxtaposition of
‘subject mater, in order to elicit an emotional response from th
‘audience. The books which resulted from this collaboration allowed for
the contextualising of tne subject, in which both photographs and text
formed a symbiotic relationshio.
Whilst the emphasis of the majority of these social documentary
photographers resided in an overt appeal to the emotions ofthe
viewer, reflecting what they themselves felt about their subjects, the
method adopted by Walker Evans invoked. rather different response.
Working under the same briel that motivated other F.S.A,
photographers, Evans' work was “purtanially economical, precisely
measured, frontal, unemotional, dryly textured (anc) insistently
factual.”
Earlier i his career Evans had rejected the psychological approach of
Stieglitz in favour of @ photography that would seem understated and
reticent. Working with a view camera mounted at eye level, he
photographed what was typical and ubiquitous, seeking a transparent
ualty that would render his photographs literate and authoritative.‘Such an uncompromising approach appeared to rrany of his
contemporaries as idiosyncratic, especialy as the commitment toward
‘documentary photography changed folowing the Depression.
Intime the post-war prosperity of America led pubic awareness away
from the larger issues toward relatively minor ones. Through an
increase in magazine publication, photojournalists, under pressure
from editors to produce a consistent supply of mages related to
immediate issues, reduced the epic form oftheir predecessors into a
formula capable of manipulating emotional responses in any situation,
Whilst Walker Evans was able to maintaina degree afindependence by
instigating his own assignments at Fortune magazine, other serious
photographers found the compromise necessitated by editorship and
Dublic taste t00 restrictive. The inclination was to move increasingly
away from public to private concerns.
‘The shift of emphasis from the documentation of American society toa
personalised vision ofits effects onthe individual was most profoundly
realised by the publication of The Americans by Robert Frank in 1989.
His series of cisturbed views, al the more stiking because of the
{general atiuence of the period, established a high individualised
approach to documentary photography.
(Once the onus of American photography had emerged as the pursuit
‘of personal concems, whether through the ‘equivalent’ advocated by
Minor White or as witness to immediate experience invoked by Rober
Frank, the relationship between the medium and external reality
became increasingly tenuous. The further this process of intecorty
developed, reiterating the photograph’s opacity, the more atotal
abstraction was indicated. Yet the potential strengh of photography
resides in its capacity to inform as well as reflect our perception of the
external world, Itis within this aspect of the medium thatthe
photographs of Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz and Jce Deal engage us.
Vv
Inhis two portfolios Maryland and Nevada, Lewis Paltz sequenced the
photographs to form an extended narrative bayoncthe confines of the
places depicted. Maryland begins at the juncture of natural and man
ade landscape, then moves through the suburbs into the city. The
process of construction and decomposition depiciedin the
photographs becomes analogous tothe cycle of man’s relationship to
his environment, his constant involvement wit the forces of natural
‘change. This eyelie evolution was evidenced by tre development of
the sequence. From the inital process of construction on the land the
‘extension of the suburbs reveals man's attempt to appropriate the
environment and cutivate the arborescent characteristics of the land,
‘This interaction escalates into the city where, aithough nature has been
temporarily abated, the evidence indicated through the photographs is
‘of the natural process beginning to reassert itself.
Inthe Nevada series, Baltz concentrated on the prolteration of new
housing within the shelter of surrounding mountains. First viewed
through @ shimmering naze on the horizon, the town is then explored
‘torn within its boundaries. Then moving nto the mountains, the
photographs direct out attention toward the relationship between open
‘Space and urbanisation. Seen from adistance the man-made
structures take on the appearance of oases, whilst detailed inspection
indicates the extent of man's consumption ofthe land, "conceived in
expedience”, that betrays a total lack of sympathy with the
environment.
‘The central theme underlying the Marylandand Nevada series, as with
allof Baltz's work, is the way in which Americans now lve, especially
the conditions and environmentin which they build their homes.
Attention to the vernacular of these buildings testifesto the aspirations
Of investors and planners, whilst the details reveal the quality ofthe
‘owners’ ife-styles. The growth of suburbials inparta consequence of
the desir tolive in peacetul, healthy surroundings, yetby definition, to
retain economic and cultural roots within the city. These links are
usually te result of lang and complex interelationships, evolving
through time and the changing needs of people. Once these roots are
severed, development takes place within a cultural vacuum and
enhances a tourist mentality which, as Dean MeCannell remarks:
‘the only unit of social organisation in the modern world thats both
sutfused with cultural imagery and absolutely detached trom
surrounding culture” ® The re-emergence of Park City, Utah as a
second-home development and sking resort hasits economic base in
‘snow, and a culture of facilitated pleasure,
Originally founded inthe late eighteen-sintos, Park City grew as a
mining town when deposits of silver were discovered in the
surrounding Wasatch mountains. In 1898 twas largely destroyed by
fire and though rebuilt, faced a steady decline as the diminishing
returns trom the mines forced the inhabitants to leave. Itseemed likely
to become another western ghost town until its recreational
possibilties were discovered during the sities. This marked the
beginnings of economic recovery as ski runs and lifts were
constructed on the mountains surrounding the town. Investors
realising the potential of good skiing conditions and thousands of acres
‘of open land began planning large real-estate developments, and by
4977 Park City's second boom was underway.
‘The two and a half year period during which Baltz photographed Park
City has resulted in a sequence which in length and complexity both
incorporates and expands upon the achievements of Maryland and
‘Nevada. Whereas inthe latter works the temporal theme of the
‘sequence remained linear, Park City rejects that possibilty through a
series of cycles, repetitions and cross-references. in effect, there are
‘sequences within the sequence, each exploring different aspects,
within the overall conception of the work.“The first two views from Masonic Hl function as establishing shots,
showing “landscape-as-real-estate", the topography of Park City to
bbe explored throughout the sequence. The work can then be divided
into three sectiong; the landscape both old and new, the relationship of
the new developments to that landscape, and finaly the interiors.
Following the two elevated views are three photographs made
betwoen West Sidewinder Drie and State Highway 248 ooking West,
Which explore the historical aspect of Park City evident through older
ruins and foundations on the ground, and the second growth trees.
‘above them on tne hil slopes, The woodland was orginally felled to
allow access for mining. Now ceared lanes through the tees mark the
‘skins. Seasonal change inthe next wo photographs, Between
Sidewinder Drive and State Highway 248, now looking southwest
re-establishes the present. The snow packed ski runs ready for use
blend into the sky area, whilst he foreground is filed with recently
‘moved heaps af earth and rubble, Here too isthe fst evidence of
Construction machinery, a theme reiterated throughout the first two
sections, and explicitly stated in Looking Sournwest rom State
Highway 248, where horizontal vackmarks run pavalleto a pipeline
and railway track, in contrast tothe undulation of the hls. These nil
are then eclipsed in Between West Sidewinder Dave and State
Highway 248, looking Northwest, by @heap of earth and stones that
(gradually subsides through the folowing three photographs, the latter
wo forming a panorama. Between West Sidewinder Drive and State
Highway 248, looking West aveals a landscape dominated by
scattered wastage amid the patially excavated ground. The movement
‘80 far described by the sequence has completed the etch of @
‘compass whilst depicting tne changing seasons, thus creating the
‘context within which the remaining photographs are located,
Inthe photograph Prospector Vilage, Lot 85, looking West, which
instigates the middie section o Park City, everything appears ina state
Cf imminent transformation, Across the foreground lie the extraneous
by-products ofthe newly constructed building partial viewed on the
right hand side of the photogreph, Newly planted trees and piled tur
are indicative ofthe efforts to naturalise the setting. In the distance,
‘shadow obliterates one hil, whist sunlight on another outines the
remaining snow on a skirun. Just as in tne frst photograph on the
‘Maryland sequence, al the elements explored throughout Park City
are implied inthis photograph,
‘Maryland Idescrives alandscepe in which taces of human activity are