Anyone else interested in the New Topographic Movement?

You see more of this loss in photographs of abandoned homes and places of work And images of past people living their daily lives.
This can be best achieved by recording the now for future generations, not as "Art" photography, but as a record of life as we live it, and the processes of change as we recognise it. in the context of our own time.

There's a place for 'art' documentary, 'straight' documentary and vernacular photography to record change. That's one of the great things about Photography as a whole. Was Atget making 'art' photography at the time?


https://www.instagram.com/thepeoples_archive/
 
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Virtually the whole of the land mass of the UK is man made and altered to serve his needs.
Every Age has played its part in scaping what we have to day.
Time and dust from space and erosion covers up one age from the next in an endless process
The early industrial heritage of the mid 1700's is now largely covered by fresh flora or new builds.
The evidence of the two world wars is now almost entirely hidden.

What I knew and loved as a child is mostly gone... built over and covered in tarmac, unrecognisable.

Photography can never adequately show these changes , they are too slow. and never have an end point,
Just strings in time. From then to now.
To have meaning they need to show emotion, loss, and hope for the future.
This is not adequately covered by the banal.

You see more of this loss in photographs of abandoned homes and places of work And images of past people living their daily lives.
This can be best achieved by recording the now for future generations, not as "Art" photography, but as a record of life as we live it, and the processes of change as we recognise it. in the context of our own time.


That's a very narrow definition of photography. Personally, I have a more expansive view than that.
 
For me, a photo has to have *something* about it that catches the attention, tells a story in the image or is simply a well-composed and assembled picture. Shore's large format images appear to do that well based on what was shown in the clip, but the set that captured 'what he was seeing as he saw it' did not do that as individual photos, and most require a narrative to give them meaning. Mitchells work may be nostalgic, but certainly did that.

I've realised that I'm semi-intentionally taking this kind of picture with my phone because in some ways the technical side of this kind of image is adequately covered by a phone camera for the purposes of posting to a web forum. There's some garages I pass between parking up & walking to visit my mum, and every time I walk past I want to stop & take a picture.

Bicester Garages again.

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Any modern British photographers shooting in colour in this style?
The genre does seem to be flooded by American photographers, no doubt inspired by Shore and Eggleston.

The best I've seen recently was Mark Power's Black Country series, and even he's off shooting America now.
https://www.markpower.co.uk/Photographic-projects/BLACK-COUNTRY-STORIES

Chris Dorley-Brown might be a fit.


Until I saw this thread I wasn't aware of the term New Topographics for this type of photograhy, but I'm certainly a fan and many of my own photographs would probably fall under the banner.
 
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An interesting thread and I've spent a few pleasant hours looking at work by the phtotographers linked from here. I've also had to order a couple of zines from Another Place Press.
 
There's a place for 'art' documentary, 'straight' documentary and vernacular photography to record change. That's one of the great things about Photography as a whole. Was Atget making 'art' photography at the time?
https://www.instagram.com/thepeoples_archive/

Photography only ever records the now.
It is no more than a frame in a very incomplete time lapse, from the past to the future.
what comes down to us may not even be the most important frames in that continuum, many will be entirely missing.
however Change is evident in any two or more frames from that ribbon of time.
but they can never tell the whole story.
Those frames as images, might or might not, have had artistic intent,
but that becomes entirely irrelevant to the story they tell.
far more important is to capture images that bracket those moments of maximum change.
Art is entirely incidental to this process.
 
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Topophilia has never been about capturing change.
It has always been about capturing the Now in a stylised minimalistic way.
It becomes more interesting the further it is separated from the viewers own time period and context
Mostly it is based a visual language developed by artists in the 20's and 30's

In any other field of art that style would now be considered an anachronism.
In music it would be like composing pop in the style of Mozart.
Possible, and no doubt pleasant on the ear, but not relevant to today.
But more popular than a contemporary Birtwistle derivative piece would be.
 
Photography always records the past. :)

However it is always taken in the present..
it is a moment in time.
It can never be taken in any other time than the now,
It is like foot prints in the sand of time.
 
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Quite often one photograph does not convey the message the photographer wishes to impart. A body of work (TM Ed Sutton) does that much more clearly. What may initially seem to be banal can, seen in that context, convey very much more.

Discuss?

This is somewhat similar to what I've been saying, that some images require one to know the 'why' it was taken for it to have meaning, and the why can sometimes be provided by further images in the set.
 
This is somewhat similar to what I've been saying, that some images require one to know the 'why' it was taken for it to have meaning, and the why can sometimes be provided by further images in the set.



Yes, the rest of the body of work can help the viewer to understand the single image.
 
For me, a photo has to have *something* about it that catches the attention, tells a story in the image or is simply a well-composed and assembled picture. Shore's large format images appear to do that well based on what was shown in the clip, but the set that captured 'what he was seeing as he saw it' did not do that as individual photos, and most require a narrative to give them meaning. Mitchells work may be nostalgic, but certainly did that.

I've realised that I'm semi-intentionally taking this kind of picture with my phone because in some ways the technical side of this kind of image is adequately covered by a phone camera for the purposes of posting to a web forum. There's some garages I pass between parking up & walking to visit my mum, and every time I walk past I want to stop & take a picture.

I agree. Photographs should generally be "about" something. Not "of" something.
 
It's nice to see people discussing the New Topographic movement, it spawned a lot of photographers who then went off in their own directions and generally speaking I still like all of them. I came across the Topographic's when I was at college in the mid seventies just as the movement was gaining ground so to speak. Of course Robert Adams book 'The New West' was the new bible, taking over from A Adams 'The Zone System', and many an hour was spent trying to make Sheffield look like Colorado. Of course that didn't work, but I suppose that is what learning is about. Even now when I pick up a 6x6 camera my first instinct is to point it at a Phillips 66 gas station, then I realise it's actually a Tesco petrol station, and it's raining.

I suppose if anybody is looking for a British photographer who's image look similar to the New Topographic's it would be Simon Roberts, but I can't post a link because this is my first post.

Edit - of course big brain fade, for British 'topographic' photographers also look at John Davies, embarrassing as I've had a few pints in his company.
 
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Welcome the Talk Photography Stephen

then I realise it's actually a Tesco petrol station, and it's raining
:D
Been there wishing for a sandy uncluttered background.

Simon Roberts, but I can't post a link because this is my first post.
I'm guessing it's this Simon Roberts https://www.simoncroberts.com/ I'd seen his Merrie Albion and Election Artist work but not https://www.simoncroberts.com/work/the-weeds-and-the-wilderness/ which is a little reminiscent of some of the work of our own @Ed Sutton
 
I'm guessing it's this Simon Roberts https://www.simoncroberts.com/ I'd seen his Merrie Albion and Election Artist work but not https://www.simoncroberts.com/work/the-weeds-and-the-wilderness/ which is a little reminiscent of some of the work of our own @Ed Sutton

Well, he seems to have quite a lot to say for himself. I never really feel comfy looking at photos that shout a political viewpoint - show me pain, trauma, struggle, planning blight etc, but politics? Nicht Var! (as the signs used to say).
 
Thank you for getting a link in, I need one more link now to check John Davies.
Well, he seems to have quite a lot to say for himself. I never really feel comfy looking at photos that shout a political viewpoint - show me pain, trauma, struggle, planning blight etc, but politics? Nicht Var! (as the signs used to say).

But the photographs of Robert Adams were political, they weren't just recording the spread of tract houses, they were against the spread of tract houses. Otherwise it's like saying the New Topographic photographers didn't have an opinion because their images 'looked' banal, but they did have something to say.

Sorry I'm arguing too much.
 
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Thank you for getting a link in, I need one more link now to check John Davies.


But the photographs of Robert Adams were political, they weren't just recording the spread of tract houses, they were against the spread of tract houses. Otherwise it's like saying the New Topographic photographers didn't have an opinion because their images 'looked' banal, but they did have something to say.

Sorry I'm arguing too much.

Perhaps it's the landing page on his site, but there's a way of recording situations which allows you to form opinions, and there's a way which says "I HATE XXX government". Many positively like the latter approach, but I abhor it.

Welcome Stephen. :)
 
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