A potent pair of photography exhibits at San Francisco’s MoMA – New Topographics and Picturing Modernity – examine the concept of place and identity in American photography.

The first, New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, is a restaging of an exhibition first held in 1975 at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. Signaling a new approach to landscape photography, and the impact of Conceptualism and Minimalism on 1970s photography, New Topographics marks a dramatic shift in attitude towards the subject of landscapes.

Unlike their predecessors, such as Ansel Adams and Minor White, the New Topographics photographers did not use their work to express transcendent, personal experiences with nature. Rather, they depicted the ordinary landscapes that surround us, including elements of the built environment often overlooked or considered eyesores: gas stations, tract homes, motels, and parking lots. The show’s reincarnation features nearly 150 photographs from all ten photographers from the original show – Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Joe Deal, Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Stephen Shore, and Henry Wessel – all representative of this dramatic re-conceptualization of landscape, and a reflection of the complex and ambiguous relationship between humans and the environment. As Nixon described the approach, “The world is infinitely more interesting than any of my opinions concerning it. This is not a description of a style or an artistic posture, but my profound conviction.”

*above: from New Topographics: Bernd and Hilla Becher (German, 1931-2007 and b. 1934), Preparation Plant, Harry E. Colliery Coal Breaker, Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania, USA, 1974; © Hilla Becher, 2009

*above: from New Topographics: Robert Adams (American, b. 1937), Mobile Homes, Jefferson County, Colorado, 1973; George Eastman House collections; © Robert Adams, courtesy of Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco, and Matthew Marks Gallery, New York

*above: from New Topographics: Lewis Baltz (American, b. 1945), East Wall, McGaw Laboratories, 1821, George Eastman House collections; © Lewis Baltz

The second, complementary exhibition, Picturing Modernity, further explores the concept of place and identity in American photography with work made from the 19th century to the present by Berenice Abbott, Walker Evans, Timothy O’Sullivan, Joel Sternfeld, Alfred Stieglitz, and many others. Highlights include an installation of sculptures and photographs by William Christenberry and a selection of photographs from Wright Morris‘s series Home Place to mark the centenary of the photographer’s birth. Photographs of a decimated Charleston, South Carolina by George N. Barnard – best known for his photo-documentation of the American Civil War, during which time he followed Union General William Tecumseh Sherman’s infamous march to the sea – further reinforce the concept of man’s vulnerable relationship to place.

*above: from Picturing Modernity: William Christenberry, T. B Hick’s Store, Newbern, Alabama, 1991/2008; Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of Randi and Bob Fisher; © William Christenberry, courtesy Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York

*above: from Picturing Modernity: Milton Rogovin, Lower West Side, 1972. Gelatin silver print, 8 in x 10 in, Gift of Ellen and Jon F. Vein. © Milton Rogovin.

*above: from Picturing Modernity: Wright Morris, Reflection in Oval Mirror, Home Place, 1947; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA, Gift of Robert Fisher; © 2003 Center for Creative Photography, Arizona Board of Regents

*above: from Picturing Modernity: Berenice Abbott, Shelter on the Water Front, Coenties Slip, Pier 5, East River, Manhattan, 1938; gelatin silver print; Collection SFMOMA

New Topographics and Picturing Modernity are both open to the public til October 3, 2010.
For more information, visit SFMoMA.org.

*All images courtesy of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.