Customer Reviews

New Topographics

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I think Steidl are to congratulated on publishing a beautiful overview of the ground-breaking 1975 New Topographics photo show and the book complements the current touring exhibition (from June 2009 to January 2012).

The 304 pages are basically in three sections: two essays; portfolio from the ten photographers and finally a review of the original New Topographics catalog. Of the two essays Britt Salvesen's is remarkably comprehensive (fifty-nine illustrated pages, including nine of notes) and she places the photos in the context of the times and then Alison Nordstrom writes about the Topographic genre from 1975 to now. Included in her essay are a couple of photos of the original exhibit and I was intrigued to see that the framed photos weren't that big, actually not much larger than this book. Incidentally some of the actual prints from the original show are being used in the current tour.

The portfolio section presents a selection of images from the ten photographers: Adams 15; Baltz 18; the Becher's 5; Deal 14; Gohlke 13; Nixon 15; Schott 15; Shore 7 (the only ones in color) and Wessel 13. Each photo is centered on the page with a caption below and printed in a 175 screen with spot varnish and they do look a treat. The cityscape work of Nicholas Nixon I thought especially stunning. John Schott's selection is from his `Route 66 Motels' work and it seems his camera style must have influenced plenty of contemporary photographers who specialize in freeway America.

The last fifty-eight pages is fascinating because the original forty-eight page exhibition catalog is reproduced (with two, just readable, spreads to a page) followed by a checklist of the 169 photos in the show with captions. Some of these photos are shown large in the portfolio section but I was rather disappointed that they weren't printed bigger than thumbnails; there is plenty of page space after all.

As I said earlier I think Steidl have published a wonderful book about a significant photo event from the last century and very comparable in editorial thoroughness to their stunning Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans, Expanded Edition they published last year. Both books must surely be the gold standard about their subjects.

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

The origin of photography of man-altered landscape. Truely amazing. More than 30 years already passed, but still remains relevant today.