The Streets

For this project I knew for sure that I wanted to do street photography. I thought it would be fascinating to go out and photograph people interacting on the streets. I felt the best way to capture Utah streets was by going to Salt Lake City since it is the most "city-like" place around, and the diversity seen there would make the whole experience a lot more interesting.

From Favs!

From Favs!

From Favs!

From Favs!

From Favs!

From Favs!

From Favs!

From Favs!

Man and Nature

Many New Topographics photographs, particularly those of Lewis Baltz, emphasize form and geometry in their depictions of man's interactions with the land. I chose to follow this strictly aesthetic approach. I specifically tried to avoid any possible significance, and focus merely on the visual characteristics of humanity's fingerprint.

Peter Kern-My New Topographics

I really enjoyed New Topographics and found its message very timely and interesting. I was much more attracted to that and new that for this project I would go exploring and try to find a landscape that I connected with. I found an area much more interesting than what I used for my two hour photo project and wish I could go back and do it here. I drove up to Vivian Park in Provo Canyon and drove up some roads I had never driven. I ended up at Big Springs Park. From there a short walking distance led me to some very interesting sights. I strove to capture the manmade geometric shapes juxtaposed upon the mountain landscapes of the Wasatch.






This one kind of breaks from the rest but it is one of my favorites. Its almost as if the owners were purposefully trying to give me good material to work with.








This is my attempt at capturing the ubiquity of phone poles that I was talking about in class.

A little light Jazz

I love going to Jazz games. I love my team. I love losing my voice in the first quarter on behalf of my team. There is so much that makes up the atmosphere of the game. The energy in the air, the roar of the crowd, the sticky floor beneath our feet. It all adds up to make a magical experience for me.Watching my team beat my other favorite team, the Celtics, I wondered what the experience is like for other people...

We see them on every corner. They flank scalpers and statues of Stockton. The game for them is a job opportunity. We waited long enough for him to put his cell phone away to get to work.

It seems some of them take a different approach. The previous "worker" introduced us to his wife. That's right.

Some fans come in conflict... and my guess is they left in conflict too.

For others it's a learning opportunity. Grandma's explaining the ins and outs of the pick and roll all while comforting him while the Jazz wrap up the win.

Games can just be a great night out with dad.

And a great night out with dad can mean a long night of waiting around for mom.

While fans live and die by what goes on in the arena, he lives by watching what goes on around the arena.

I've never been able to walk out of a loss telling myself that we at least have a championship, or 17 for that matter like Boston. For him, this game was another reason to appreciate his T-shirt.

Sadly, every game has to end with someone emerging as the loser, but it's funny how they seem to attract each other.

Is there a New Topographics Style?

New Topographics has become a style within itself; it's own means of expression. The objective is to document the human footprint on the American landscape through objective photography.

"I hope that these photographs are sterile, that there's no emotional content." - Lewis Baltz

Yet photography is a subjective medium. All images are composed by the eye of the photographer. All subject matter is termed relevant by one's own preferences. One can even question the validity of using art photography as documentation.

"Documentary? That's a very sophisticated and misleading word. And not really clear...the term should be documentary style. An example of a literal document would be a police photograph of a murder scene. You see, a document has a use, whereas art is really useless. Therefore art is never a document, though it certainly can adopt that style." -Walker Evans

Though my subject matter is the manufactured American landscape, I document objects that resonate emotionally with me. The fragments of my culture are strewn across the landscape, once created by man, now destroyed by him. The present American culture can catch a glimpse of its future, reduced to merely a footprint on an ever-changing landscape. That is my New Topographics style.

From New Topographics

From New Topographics

From New Topographics

From New Topographics

From New Topographics

From New Topographics

From New Topographics

From New Topographics