I also hadn't heard of him before. Judging just from the slide show, I like his ideas but I don't immediately understand his composition, especially in the first few images (the ones most prominently showing development splopping over Western landscapes).
Take the first image---um, not the one of him with the fish, but "Untitled View (Albuquerque)". The two things that grab my eye are (1) the giant white roof in the foreground, and (2) the somewhat cockeyed perspective. I get that the point is in part how the buildings marginalise the landscape, but my eye has a hard time latching on to the landscape that's being marginalised, and I don't quite see how the odd angle plays into the whole image.
For the sake of my education, is anyone willing to enlighten me with a little discussion of what's going on in this image, and/or point me at someplace to further my understanding of the New Topographics?
-NT