My favorite? Lewis Baltz.
Herzog's work (if the book is representative) seems distinctly "street" rather than "New Topographic" if it's necessary to apply a name to it. Great to have Kodak's exceptional Palo Alto Kodachrome lab so conveniently available. Little known, it did RUSH processing, same day if you didn't tell others about it and got it to them when the door opened. I vaguely remember that the price was boosted a little.
Also, the "logical sense" for sending to Palo Alto rather than anywhere else was probably that the best 3 Kodachrome labs in the world were, according to Kodak's own gossip, #1 Palo Alto, #2 somewhere in Texas, #3Paris.
"This long-awaited compendium of Lewis Baltz's writings from 1975 to 2007 is drawn from his critical writing for magazines such as Art in America, The Times Literary Supplement, L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui and Purple. The book includes Baltz's texts on Edward Weston, Walker Evans, Robert Adams, Michael Schmidt, Allan Sekuka, Chris Burden, Thomas Ruff, Barry Le Va, Jeff Wall, Félix González-Torres, John McLaughlin, Slavica Perkovic and Krzysztof Wodiczko, among others. This important publication gives Baltz's literary output the standing it deserves and offers a unique insight into some of history's leading photographers.
Born in 1945 in Newport Beach, California, Lewis Baltz is a defining photographer of the last half-century. After studying at the San Francisco Art Institute and Claremont Graduate School, Baltz came to prominence with the New Topographics movement of the 1970s. His awards include a Guggenheim fellowship and the Charles Pratt Memorial Award, and his work is held in most major museum collections. Baltz's books with Steidl include 89–91, Sites of Technology (2007), Works (2010), The Prototype Works (2011) and Candlestick Point (2011)."
Some of Drew Wiley's posts about New Topographics from another thread have now been moved here. My apologies for any discontinuity in how the thread reads.
Sorry about that. I do these posts on the fly and didn't realize the distinction. Right now, I'm just waiting for my RA4 chem to reach temp equilibrium. I don't want to directly interact with some of the posts that didn't get transferred, but one of them seemed to imply that the terminology of New Topographics was based on a name of particular exhibit arranged by Szarkowski. Well, if someone like him invites you to a show, any photographer would probably take the bait, even if he had titled it Pork and Beans instead.
The point I was trying to make was that he was selecting photographers already working in particular individual styles, and combining them under his own umbrella with its own label, and not necessarily by how they thought of themselves or their own work beforehand. And I also hinted how I actually saw the early works of a number of these individuals several years beforehand, and before that New Topo label ever gained currency. So the label itself seems like an artificial rubber stamp post-applied; but that tendency is nothing new in the art world. And in the broader genre, quite a bit was already being done here on the West Coast that Szarkowski might not have even been aware of.
But now I committed the misdemeanor of stating, "post-whatever" myself. I sorta got the distinction between Post Impressionism and post-impressionism, but still can't quite figure out the meaning of "repealed re-posted pre-impressionist post-modernism". Perhaps it's an art academic's manner of describing postpartum creative depression.
Another photographer who has some retrospectives coming up, and who, if I stretch things a bit (maybe quite a bit), might be considered Pre New Topographics...Bill Owens. He also started up the first microbrewery in California...moved on to helping set up distillaries around the world..
His work, Suburbia, is turning 50. https://billowens.com/photographs/suburbia-c
There will be anniversary shows soon in Carmel and in Norway. I have handled most of his prints while getting a show up on the walls for a retrospective for his 80th birthday (in Hayward where he lives). One of the most interesting people one could hope to meet. Makes great whisky.
Exhibition: Bill Owens, Suburbia - 50th Anniversary
Exhibition: Bill Owens, Suburbia-50th Anniversary October 8 - November 13, 2022 Opening Reception and Artist Talk, Saturday, October 8th In person artist talk with Bill Owens in Carpenter Hall, Sunset Center: 3:00 - 4:00pm Reception to follow in CPA gallery, 4:00 - 6:00pm Join us for the 50th...photography.org
Bill Owens... I may remember first seeing his work via the sadly-departed Oakland Tribune (maybeit owned the Livermore paper), later reading his opinionating online...very cranky...I don't think his photos had much to do with New Topo because he was genuinely appreciative of the humans with whom he perhaps-identified (hence his great "Suburbia" book) ...but their "banality" does ring some New-Topo type bells for me, too. He had been a genuine press photographer...I attended high school in the East Bay, not far from Hayward. Hard to imagine his work hanging in Carmel, where the big money used to be (Clint Eastwood's restaurant, Charles Schwab's home etc). Thanks for reminding. I decided last minute to NOT attend Altamont where my family had farmed and where he documented the Hell's Angel killing (don't know if he got Mick Jagger).
....the terminology of New Topographics was based on a name of particular exhibit.....
The point I was trying to make was that he was selecting photographers already working in particular individual styles, and combining them under his own umbrella with its own label, and not necessarily by how they thought of themselves or their own work beforehand. And I also hinted how I actually saw the early works of a number of these individuals several years beforehand, and before that New Topo label ever gained currency. So the label itself seems like an artificial rubber stamp post-applied; but that tendency is nothing new in the art world. And in the broader genre, quite a bit was already being done here on the West Coast thatSzarkowskiJenkins might not have even been aware of.
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