"Each
of the photographs in this show portrays the spirit of the original New
Topographers. However, it would be short sighted to imagine nothing
has changed in the new topographic depiction of landscape since
1975. Where once industrial buildings were directly positioned against
the backdrop of the natural landscape, marking a tension between the
natural and the man made world, the opportunity for a kind of statement
about the uneasiness surrounding the continued rise of industrial and
commercial development becomes more tenuous given the current place
humans occupy in time. Instead, the introduction of the pastoral
landscape as thought or ideology manifest through the presence of wall
murals that suggest something lost and longed for, perhaps lacked, in
our lived experiences. The mural theme marks an interesting shift in
the depictions of landscape, one that speaks to a shared sense of loss
in the natural world. If the original new topographers focused on
depicting scenes of the industrial asserting itself on to the landscape,
then what we can see in these photographs is the ideological and visual
fall out of a world that has moved past industrializing and into a
world of ever diminishing natural spaces." - Vann Powell
"Each
of the photographs in this show portrays the spirit of the original New
Topographers. However, it would be short sighted to imagine nothing
has changed in the new topographic depiction of landscape since
1975. Where once industrial buildings were directly positioned against
the backdrop of the natural landscape, marking a tension between the
natural and the man made world, the opportunity for a kind of statement
about the uneasiness surrounding the continued rise of industrial and
commercial development becomes more tenuous given the current place
humans occupy in time. Instead, the introduction of the pastoral
landscape as thought or ideology manifest through the presence of wall
murals that suggest something lost and longed for, perhaps lacked, in
our lived experiences. The mural theme marks an interesting shift in
the depictions of landscape, one that speaks to a shared sense of loss
in the natural world. If the original new topographers focused on
depicting scenes of the industrial asserting itself on to the landscape,
then what we can see in these photographs is the ideological and visual
fall out of a world that has moved past industrializing and into a
world of ever diminishing natural spaces." - Vann Powell