New Social Landscape Photography - Steph's Shutter Stories

New Social Landscape photography portrays the effects of humans on earth by capturing human altered scenes. It incorporates the natural landscape captured; however, the focus is on the effect of human beings on earth. The beginnings of new social landscape photography were a turning point in the history of photography. In 1975 the “New Topographics” exhibition opened and it signaled a radical shift away from traditional depictions of landscape. Pictured were natural scenes that gave way to un-romanticized views of industrial landscapes, while suburban and everyday scenes were not usually given a second chance. The photographers featured were Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Frank Gohlke, Stephen Shore, Joe Deal, Bern & Hilla Becher, Nicholas Nixon, Henry Wessel, John Schott.

Diane Arbus was a photographer in the early 1960’s who produced compelling portraits of people on the outskirts of society as seen in the examples below.

Diane Arbus

Gary Winogrand was a New Yorker who roamed the U.S. during postwar decades and left behing a sweeping portrait of American Life. His photos powerfully combine the hope and exhilaration in addition to the anxiety and turbulence that came over America during that time.

Gary Winogrand

Lee Friedlander began photographing the American social landscape in 1948 and has created humorous and poignant images among the chaos of city life, dense landscape, and countless other subjects throughout his career.

Lee Friedlander

Capturing New Social Landscape can be difficult because you have to look for the “ugly” parts of society created by humans. Unfortunately, it is all around if you look in the right places. When I approached this type of photography I drove around and just photographed the world around me, mostly the ugly or depressing parts. One of the best things about New Social Landscape is that it doesn’t require much editing. Just careful angles and good composition all throughout. I decided to convert my photo to gray-scale, however that was just my personal preference because I felt as though it was a stronger image in just black and white versus color. Below I have attached my work in New Social Landscape.