View allAll Photos Tagged TOPOGRAPHIC
A third image in my impromptu little series of signage in New topographics landscape.
In this photo the landscape is reduced to but two trees being squeezed out of what was recently 1970's forests and open fields. Now a sprawling mall (Woodfield mall). The irony here lies in the mocking word 'wood' where there was an abundance of wood and trees -- now a concrete field...
I distinctly recall standing there and enjoying the neutral unemphatic beauty of the location. The gentle harmony of colors and how the sun’s rays, filtered through high altitude gossamer ice clouds washed the colors.
SOOC
A myriad of topographical features, etched by the wind and rain, intermittently move between sun and shade on this dramatic Arizona day. A geologist's dream come true.
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
SOOC
I like my affordable Nikon very much. I'm sure I've got over 200,000 clicks on it. But a full frame with a 55mm prime would have been perfect for this scene. Yes, I could have cleaned it all up in post, but hey, SOOC is always a joy.
Daily Quiz challenge:
How did he nab this shot?
A: He's a high voltage linemen in an apple picker.
B: He sure has a mean dunk jump.
C: Standing on the roof of a gas station.
D: VTOL personal air-scooter.
E: Yeah how did he get this silly shot?
New topographics images can be quite challenging to comprehend, but taken in context to the groups tenets brings some degree of appreciation.
Inspired by Joe Deal book 'Between nature and culture'. I wanted this electric box in the middle of nowhere to blend into the landscape.
Olympus sure shot WP-1
ILford Delta 100
Robert Adams sought to portray isolation experienced by suburban residents by photographing spaces with constraining barriers such as automotive space, domestic space, commercial space, all fragmenting the landscape. - - - 'Reframing The New topographics' book 2010 page 37.
Canon sure shot WP-1
The color aesthetics of film are worthy of a big fat spoon. Dish em out and I’ll keep lapping em up.
Canon sure shot WP-1
32mm 6 element lens
Fujifilm 400
Trying to adhere to the style Robert Adams used when photographing Topographic landscapes in Colorado by using the high altitude sunlight to be a leading factor in his imaging.
This picture is close to my heart because it was taken about 3 miles from my home. I used to wander a large wooded area where they recently began building a new sprawling suburban subdivision of 100's of houses.
It is a sad fact that despite giant tacks of areas in Chicago which could easily be built upon they nonetheless forge forward into what is left of nature.
In a scenario such as this our inquisitive eyes immediately begin doing figure eights.
Ricoh AUTO 35 - camera
For fear of being repetitive, while I'm on the theme of asphalt I figured I'd post one more.
Just to put things into perspective; I'm standing at the far edge of an enormous parking lot, I90 interstate runs adjacent to that salt dome, and asphalt/ cement clad the land all the way to that building upon the horizon. Yes, completely covered.
I have been quite oblivious to the unfettered manner landscape has been brutally altered until now.
Salt barn, multi-lane toll booth, high-rise building, and state/ federal communication towers, high voltage wires; all advancing on to that poor tree. How do I structure all this to make visual sense?
I admire the work Robert Adams did in Colorado Springs 1968 for it's straightforwardness and the way he utilized the harsh mile high sunlight. One particular image 'Newly Completed Tract House, Colorado Springs' came to mind when I stood before this structure.
camera: Zenit 122
Industar pancake 50mm
Ilford Delta 100
Quite a busy location and busy shot utilizing the compositional practice of leaving the center of the frame empty thus making viewer’s eyes read around the image
Trying to follow the tenets of the New Topographics in photographing structure and form rather than subject matter.
My handy dandy little aluminum step ladder would have proven a benefit in elevating me about 3 feet and separating those middle ground elements.
Ricoh FF-90
Rikenon f/35mm - f 2.8
Fujifilm 200
Following the lead of Robert Adams’ plaintive and poignant photographs of the Pacific Northwest and his look at the landscape not as a heroic notion of American greatness, but as a place of loss and shame.
Robert Adams book; Turning back.
Minolta SRT 201
Minolta MD 28mm
1/60 -- f2.8
Portra 400
My visual concept was to use some mechanism to decrease the formality of my topographic landscape pictures.
Yes, adding dynamism to this photo moves directly away from the tenants of the New Topographic" movement, but to continue in my photographic hobby I must move forward albeit the chance for misstep.
"Dynamism is the lyrical conception of forms between absolute motion and relative motion, between the environment and the object which come together to form the appearance of a whole."
camera: Olympus E-PL6 micro four thirds - IBIS engaged
at 50mph directly into the sunset
Baptist churches along the southern counties of England.
Britwell Baptist Church, Berkshire
Imagining a topographic roadtrip along the southern states of the US, without ever leaving the UK’s shores.
"All of this is hidden from our eye. you can only see it in a photograph..." Henry Wessel
I took this picture in 2022 which conforms to a practice Wessel used. He let his contact sheets sit for years so as to forget the pleasurable subjective aspect of having taken the picture thus allowing for the photo to present itself objectively and he would be seeing it as would a viewer.
Debra Lynch made a decent photograph better with her digital touch. Image was simply bubbles in a blue basin of water I left out doors for thirsty critters. Used a macro lens.
New Topographics photographers utilized document style image making " to provide a format for the emerging ecological consciousness" which was evolving in the 70's.
Indeed many interviews show "they were not environmentalists, but rather they simply were artists making pictures in places that interested them."
Source: New topographics photography, a man altered landscape 1975.
However through their lens we become astutely aware of humanity's and our own personal effects upon nature.
Ok, those were fun, but let's get back to my new enthusiasm:
"topographic" - relating to the arrangement of the physical features of an area.
"new topographics" - photographic movement appreciating the beauty of the banal in human altered landscape
And when I saw that airplane taking off from O’hare I stopped composing and just clicked that red button.
camera: Canon sure shot WP-1