Research Point: New Topographics and other works:
In the article describing the exhibition, I can agree with some of the critics' opinions that the images were ‘banal’ and perhaps pretentious. I can't pretend I found the subject of the photographs particularly interesting other than that in some of the images, particularly the black and white ones, they look as though they would make a good setting for a movie with its eerie quietness and derelict natures. They could easily be the opening scene to a thriller.
https://mitchepstein.net/american-power
Going on to look through some of Mitch Epstein’s work in his collection titled American Power, I was far more intrigued to see the diverse subject matters that became the focus in some of the photos. Many of them recontextualised the term ‘American Power’, from nuclear plants in the background of an american football game, to an officer of the NYPD looking through his binoculars. Where does the ‘power’ actually come from? I can't help but naturally compare the scenes, when they contain contrasting themes of poverty and wealth.
In terms of ‘new topographics’, the photo titled Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Nevada/Arizona 2007, seemed to be most fitting to the description on a grand scale. The breathtaking expanse of mountains are practically ignored in comparison to the vast structures of the dam and the pylons. It's a totally different take on landscape photography and brings to mind the extent of change in the country’s native history.
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jan/08/margaret-drabble-fay-godwin
From the images I found in Fay Godwin’s project of ‘Our Forbidden Land’, I felt that the title of the exhibition gave the photographs an almost religious element. The subjects she captures contain landscapes that have clearly had the presence of human civilisation, but don't include people within the shots. Exclusively in black and white, again the images have a real eerie quality to them but in this instance I feel the artist wants to convey a more spiritual tone, especially in relation to how she captures the sky and the light, as well as significant landmarks such as stonehenge.
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/n/new-topographics
‘New Topographics’ was a term coined by the curator of the exhibition, William Jenkins but has become an art movement to describe photographs that depict the changes to natural landscapes, caused by mankind.
All of the photos in the examples that I have looked at have a common theme that they explore humanity’s interaction with the natural world, how we as a species have possessed and utilised the environment to the point of exhaustion. Some of the artists perhaps want to really immortalise the progression of civilization, but by taking away the presence of actual humans were looking at the impact on the earth’s natural landscape as a result. Not as a necessary process.
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