New Topographics

New Topographics: Photos of a Man-Altered Landscape was an exhibition curated by William Jenkins. It featured ten different photographer's works, each of them being represented by ten prints. It was open to the public from October 1975 until February 1976. This exhibition was a key moment in American landscape photography. Various photographers mimicked it by taking their own photos of every day scenery. 

As a part of the project, I attempted to create some photos that were inspired by it. I chose two artists to focus on - Robert Adams and Stephen Shore. I found that Adams' work was more approachable for a first step at imitating, since he had some shots featuring singular buildings. Shore's work stood out to me as well, since he was the only photographer to use colour.

Admittedly, I struggled a bit when getting started. My first shoot was somewhat unsuccessful, and I discovered that the photographs I had took were more comparable to Jem Southam's photography. My second attempt turned out a little better, though I don't feel like I took as many photos as I should have. This is something I'll have to remember in any future shoots I do, as it'll mean I have more photos to choose my favourites from.

I'm fairly happy with the outcomes - I think that the photo showing an individual house is really successful. I don't really think that the Stephen Shore attempt has the same level of warmth or atmosphere as his work, but for a first attempt I still like how it came out. As mentioned on the sketchbook page, I'm not 100% certain the image was the best choice to test this way of editing, as it somewhat resembles some of Frank Gohlke's work. This has helped me realise the importance of testing out various edits on the same image, as it can prevent situations like this!