Exercise: New Topographics

  1. Choose one photograph or a series from a photographer that you like from New Topographics by Britt Salvesen, Photograph as Contemprary Art by Cotton, or a photograph by a photographer we've seen in class that you think works in the style of the New Topographics.

  2. Print your photograph that you have taken specifically for this assignment with the same functional logic as the description you chose below.

  3. Find a quote or a paragraph from the article "New Topogoraphics" by Britt Salvesen where you think most relates to the work you selected, and expand on it by explaning in words how the photograph you selected works specifically in the mode of New Topograhics and explain how your photograph achieves that.


Handin:

- Post the photograph(s) you referenced, your text to class moodle (I would rather you post it directly onto moodle, rather than posting a word doc or a PDF file).


- Pin your photograph before start of class. For the rest of the semester, half must be done in digital and half in film.

This isn't a creative project. It is a technical exercise. That is, don't force your spin on it. What I expect is a straightforward attempt at New Topographics. That is why I value the attempt/process and not the end result


The goal is not necessary to take great photograph(s) (although it doesn't hurt) but to understand and internalize the process of taking such a photograph. It hopefully will inform and change the way you look at some of the photographs made today.