EcoTopographics Preface

EcoTopographics symbolizes a philosophical shift from New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, an exhibition by William Jenkins for the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, in 1975. Jenkins' post-modern artists illustrated landscapes spoiled by commercial artifice. In the Sixties, homes with large picture windows framed "bland-scaped" neighborhoods, now part of the sprawling, denatured communities. Architects designed massive industrial parks with buildings with few windows. Rows of green lights buzzed down on cavernous warehouse spaces and employees. New Topographics artists echoed Joni Mitchell's sentiments: "They paved paradise to put up a parking lot."

The tone of Jenkin's exhibiting artists was dull and pessimistic. In effect, the images documented devolution; industrial parks, expansive parking lots, big-box stores, fast-food restaurants, plazas, and malls sprouted across the land. Urban sprawl and ecological destruction swelled to flood and devastate nature and human psyches. Inharmonious practices grew exponentially, as did the human population and sprawl. Those of economic means build two, three, or four homes. The commercial, capitalistic mindset desired and demanded rapid development and fast profits; the policies were self-serving, shortsighted, destructive, and in the end, unsustainable.

Scholars noted that "New Topographics" artists "demythologized the American West." It represented more than that: it exposed the selfish, shallow American Dream and the futility of manifest destiny driven by a new power; the Titans of industrial technology and consumer capitalism.

Let's take a step back to contextualize. In the Sixties, the American conservation movement slowed down as layers of ecological disharmony overwhelmed American citizens. The new post-modern zeitgeist replaced Ansel Adam's idealized, pristine landscapes. As industrialization, suburban sprawl, over-population, strip mining, clear-cutting, endangered species, and pollution (water, air, and soil) became critical American concerns, a new wave of post-modern artists stepped forward. 

Jenkins' New Topographics artists learned much from Adams; they masterfully composed images and appropriated a Precisionist style with sharp, detailed photos and a maximum depth of field. Adams was an Idealist, celebrating and supporting pristine landscapes. He framed sacred spaces with ethereal atmospheres and light. Unlike Adams, Jenkins' artists were "Realist" anthropologists framing and cataloging the scope of the Anthropocene. The Eco-Realist's perspectives drew eyes to geometric forms, and artificial lattices stretched across spiritless vistas. Vegetation no longer framed horizons. Bird's eye view image highlighting patterns of man-made materials. Jenkins' artists echoed this worldview: "Man was [not] the measure of all things;" sciences and capitalist folly must not overshadow natural laws and destroy harmonious ecological systems. Connected communities, including micro-organisms, vegetation, and wildlife, are vital to scientific and "I-Thou" relationships within Mother Nature.

Leonard Shlain, author of "Art & Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light," provides insights applicable to "New Topographics." "All too often, when reading about works of exceptional artists . . . rarely is their work explained concerning how they anticipated the future," said Shlain. Did New Topogrampics artists intuitively sense and foresee the Anthropocene? Did these photographers predict that human-made materials would soon outweigh natural life on Earth? In their mind's eyes, they must have felt this growing momentum: Overwhelming numbers of "Man-Altered Landscapes" were adding up to "Man-Altered Earth." Today, inharmonious ecosystems stretch across vast continents, oceans, and polar regions. Ecologies are collapsing like dominos. Colby summarizes Jenkins' vision like this: industrial/ consumer civilizations are out of sync with the Nature of Nature, and, therefore, the Nature of humanity. What does the future hold? Can society transform into creative co-creators, collaboratively and cooperatively fostering sustainable, harmonious living?