Other contemporary photographers whose work
reflects typological inclinations include Andreas
Gursky, Catherine Wagner, and Michael Schmidt.
Also manifesting comparable concerns were the
photographers included in the 1975 exhibitionNew
Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Land-
scape, organized by the International Museum of
Photography and Film at George Eastman House,
Rochester, New York. The Bechers were the only
non-Americans in the exhibition, which also featured
work by Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Joe Deal,
Frank Gohlke, Nicholas Nixon, John Schott, Ste-
phen Shore, and Henry Wessel, Jr. TheNew Topo-
graphicsapproach was distinguished from typology
in several ways, primarily in the formal execution of
individual prints. Although many of theNew Topo-
graphicsphotographers worked on projects that con-
stituted extended series and made photographs with
an ostensibly objective appearance, their concerns
were largely social, esthetic, and humanistic, in con-
trast to the more austere, cataloging approach of the
typologists. Typology could be considered a more
postmodern approach, in contrast to the more tra-
ditionally estheticized images inNew Topographics.
As Jonathan Green writes:
Consciousness of light is perhaps the quintessential char-
acteristic of American photography. It is precisely the
lack of luminosity that sets apart the work of the German
photographers Hilla and Bernd Becher inNew Topo-
graphics. Their work stems from a European, Teutonic
demand for cataloging, and their world is seen in terms
of constructions rather than illuminated objects within a
luminescent landscape. Their obsessive concern with
the typology of representation stands in marked contrast
to the American delight in modeling sunlight. The
Bechers use the medium merely to obtain a uniform
sizing of disparate objects. Ironically, their work is the
only work inNew Topographicsthat literally records
topography. For the American photographers, as Robert
Adams said, ‘Light still works an alchemy.’
(Green 1984, 170)
While typological photographs are not devoid of
visual pleasures, they are characterized by equani-
mity of means and ends, and an interdependence
with other pictures of their type. Form and content
receive equal weight in these sequential pictures
that imply and derive meaning from both past
and future works; ‘‘The archive, not the picture, is
an appropriate frame for understanding this work’’
(Freidus 1991, 12).
GeorgeSlade
Seealso: Adams, Robert; Artists’ Books; Atget,
Euge`ne; Baltz, Lewis; Becher, Bernd and Hilla; Bloss-
feldt, Karl; Cohen, Lynne; Composition; Evans,
Walker; Gohlke, Frank; Nixon, Nicolas; Renger-
Patzsch, Albert; Ruff, Thomas; Sander, August;
Shore, Stephen; Struth, ThomasFurther Reading
Andre, Carl. ‘‘A Note on Bernhard and Hilla Becher.’’
Artforum11, no. 4 (December 1972).
Becher, Bernd and Hilla.Anonyme Skulpturen: Eine Typo-
logie technischer Bauten.Du ̈sseldorf: Art Press Verlag,
1970.
Becher, Bernd and Hilla.Bernd & Hilla Becher: Typologien
(Typologies). Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1999.
Finkeldey, Bernd, and Maria Mu ̈ller.Aus der Distanz:
Photographien von Bernd und Hilla Becher, Andreas
Gursky, Candida Ho ̈fer, Axel Hu ̈tte, Thomas Ruff, Tho-
mas Struth, Petra Wunderlich.Du ̈sseldorf: Kunstsamm-
lung Nordrhein-Westfalen/Edition Cantz, 1991.
Freidus, Marc.Typologies: Nine Contemporary Photographers.
Newport Beach, CA: Newport Harbor Art Museum, 1991.
Green, Jonathan.American Photography: A Critical History
1945 to the Present. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1984.
Jenkins, William.New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-
alteredLandscape.Rochester,NY:InternationalMuseum
of Photography at George Eastman House, 1975.
Lingwood, James, Mare Freidus, and Rod Slemmons.
‘‘Dossier Photo: Quelques faits photographiques/Aspects
of Photography.’’Art Pressno. 209 (January 1996).
Naef, Weston J.Counterparts: Form and Emotion in Photo-
graphs. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1982.
Slemmons, Rod, and Bob Sherrin.Living Evidence: Lynne
Cohen, Roger Mertin. North Vancouver, British Colum-
bia: Presentation House Gallery, 1991.
Tomkins, Calvin. ‘‘The Big Picture.’’The New Yorker76,
no. 43 (January 22, 2001).TYPOLOGY