After reading an article on the Guardian: New Topographics: photographs that find beauty in the banal, I had noticed that all the photographs were produced in black and white which creates a dramatic effect, however, Stephan Shore was the only photographer to exhibit coloured pictures. I had to research what banal meant and the title basically means finding beauty in the ordinary. I pulled a quote from this article that really stood out to me because it is a real shame to see the beautiful natural landscape being destroyed by roads and buildings. It is clear to see this statement is proven to be true as I continued my research.
the growing unease about how the natural landscape was being eroded by industrial development and the spread of cities.
S, O’Hagan. February 2010
Robert Adams (b. 1937) who took part in the New Topographics project continued to produce subtle, thought-provoking and environmentally aware photographs of natural scenery with urban sprawl. I scrolled through his website and looked at all the photographs that Adams had taken. Accompanying the photographs was paragraphs explaining his thoughts on man-altered landscape. One series that I quite like was 27 Roads, it shows many different kinds of roads from fresh tarmac to dirt back road. It portrays that over time the man-made altercations have become more significant than nature. These photographs could be argued that they are just evidence of the changes made over time, but that may not have been intended by the photographer. I have just chosen 3 from the series.
Along Federal Highway 287. North of Laporte, Larimer County, Colorado, 1977 
Sally, Weld County, Colorado, 1983
Eucalyptus alley, Riverside, California, 1978
Mitch Epstein’s American Power project is a totally different kind of photographic statement in terms of man-altered landscape. The photograph below shows an oil refinery with the American Flag on the side of it. This is a massive man-made altercation to the natural landscape and America had to make it clear that this huge change was all on them.
I feel my research here has influenced my own choice of subject within photography for the future because you need to be cautious about whats within the frame of your photograph. I usually try to avoid getting houses and telegraph lines in the frame when taking a photo of the beautiful sunset. It’s difficult to show the natural landscapes content because each element obscures whatever is behind it. This is more so now than in past times because of the mass industrial development.
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