OUTSKIRTS / RANDLAGEN
The 1975 exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape marked the emergence of a new artistic vision in American photography that detailed the human impact on the landscape in an objective visual language that was analytical and unjudging in equal measure. The protagonists of this movement not only included Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, and Stephen Shore, long since regarded as giants of photography, but also Bernd and Hilla Becher, the only European photographers to be included in the seminal show. Starting with early iconic works, today’s exhibition features some 130 works and also includes German photography of the 1990s (Joachim Brohm) and a few contemporary pictures (Sven Johne) as some of the most recent accessions to the collection. All works on display are indebted to the tradition and renewal of a documentary style that both examines the status quo and the changing face of urban, suburban, and rural human environments and traces the historical impact of human activity on the landscape.