Bob Eckert Photography
  • Home
  • About
  • Clients
  • Projects
    • 2022 New Mexico Treasures Calendar
    • 2022 Pic of the Day
    • 2023 Pic of the Day
    • 2024 New Mexico Treasures Calendar
    • 2024 Pic of the Daly
    • Abandoned Buildings Series
    • Abiquiu Dam
    • Abiquiu Livestock Sale
    • Adjective Challenge
    • Aerial Photos
    • Agricultural Profile: Christopher Bassettt: Freshies of New Mexico Farm, Velarde, NM
    • Aircraft - BW Portraits
    • Agriculture
    • Albumen Prints
    • Albuquerque Aquarium
    • Albuquerque, New Mexico, Murals
    • Albuquerque Sunport Lowrider Show
    • Alt Fashion
    • Alt Portraits
    • Amish, Kalona, Iowa
    • Angel in Albuquerque
    • Art-o-Mat
    • Astro Zombies Murals
    • Behind the Scenes at the Circus
    • Birds
    • Black and White Photos
    • Black Mesa, San Ildefonso Pueblo
    • ​​Book Review: "Orale! Lowrider: Custom Made in New Mexico"
    • Breakdancing (b-boying or break-boying)
    • Brothers
    • Cabezon Peak
    • Calf Canyon, Hermits Peak Fire
    • Carlton, Oregon
    • Car Portraits
    • Cesar Chavez and the UFW
    • Cell Phones
    • Cerro Pedernal
    • Chama River (Rio Chama) Overlook — New Mexico
    • Chiaroscuro: Light and Dark
    • Chicano Park Murals
    • Children Portraits
    • Churches
    • Circus Behind the Scenes
    • Classical Gas Museum
    • Close Up Photos
    • Cloud Photos
    • Colors
    • Comic Con New Mexico
    • Computers
    • Concorso Santa Fe
    • Contrast
    • Crosswalk Painting
    • Cumbres Toltec
    • Day of the Dead, Albuquerque's Marigold Parade
    • Descansos
    • Design photographs in the style of Charles Sheeler
    • Detroit Street Photos
    • Dogs
    • Dragonfly Bus
    • Emma Eckert's Pendants
    • Explora Albuquerque
    • Fisheye Lens Portraits
    • Fisheye Lens Photos
    • Fisheye Lenses Discussed
    • Fog Smoke Haze in Photos
    • Gay Pride Parade
    • Ghost Ranch
    • Goggles Sunglasses and Masks
    • Goofing Around with mime Mark Wenzel
    • Gordon Tooley, Apple Guru
    • Hasselblad XPan Modification
    • Hats
    • Highway 550
    • Horizont Camera Panoramic Images
    • Humor
    • Industry
    • Indian Market Native Costumes
    • Infrared Photos
    • Infrared with a Leica M8 Camera
    • In Praise of Kit Lenses
    • In Praise of Manual Lenses
    • Insects
    • Instagram
    • International Center of Photography
    • Isabro Ortega, Truchas, NM, Woodcarver
    • Isolated Trees
    • Isolation Photos
    • Jeff Brock and Bombshell Betty
    • John Lea's Painted Truck
    • Juxtaposed
    • Kaleidoscope Photos
    • Lady of Guadalupe
    • Landscape Photos
    • License Plates
    • Light Quality
    • Lomography Spinner 360
    • Lowriders
    • Lowrider Day Espanola, NM
    • Lowrider Show 2013 Revisited
    • Lowrider Show Story August 2012
    • Lowrider Summer
    • Lowriders: Vintage San Francisco Bay Area Show
    • Luck in Photography
    • Luck in Photography vers 2.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 3.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 4.0
    • Luck (or Timing) in Photography vers 5
    • Luck in Photography vers 6.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 7.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 8.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 9.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 10
    • Luck in Photography vers 11
    • Luck in Photography vers 12
    • Luck in Photography vers 13
    • Luck in Photography vers 14
    • Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
    • Matachines de Alcalde
    • Mirror Images
    • Moody, Dark, Mysterious Photos
    • Moon Photos
    • Mountains
    • Moving Arts Espanola
    • Moving Landscapes
    • Murals in Espanola, New Mexico
    • Murals: Santa Fe, New Mexico
    • National Museum of Nuclear Science and History
    • Natural Dyeing with Glenna Dean
    • New Mexico Press Association 2022 Award Winner
    • New Mexico Press Association Award Winner
    • New Mexico Press Association 2024 Award Winner
    • New Orleans Street Photography
    • Nicholas Herrera El Rito Santero
    • NM Treasures 2023 Calendar Image
    • Northern New Mexico
    • Norteno Artist Portraits
    • Olympus Pen FT Half Frame First Photos
    • Owl Cafe, Albuquerque
    • Panoramic Mosaics
    • Panoramic Photos
    • Patterns in Photography
    • Pet Store Animal Photos
    • Photographers
    • Photographing Lowriders
    • Pic of the Day
    • Pink Cadillac
    • Plants and Flowers
    • Polaroids of Northern New Mexico
    • Portfolio of Ten
    • Portraits
    • Port of Portland
    • Portraits of Strangers
    • Published Favorites
    • Repetition in Photos
    • Resurrecting Film
    • Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County
    • Road to Pedernal
    • Rocket Heads Jewelry
    • San Francisco Chinatown
    • Santa Rosa de Lima Church Rluins
    • Scale in Photography
    • San Francisco Street Photos
    • Service People Portraits
    • Sequential Series Photos
    • Shadows
    • Shadows
    • Shooting Into The Sun
    • Snow Photos
    • Spanapalooza
    • Stand Alone Photos
    • Still Life Photos
    • Storm and Rain Photos
    • Street Photography
    • Sunset / Sunrise Photos
    • Sunrays
    • Surplus Love
    • The Yin/Yang of Families
    • Tibetan Monk Sand Painting
    • Timing in Photography
    • Trailer Landscapes
    • Trees
    • UNESCO Creative City - Santa Fe
    • United Farm Workers
    • Urban Landscapes
    • Variations on a Theme
    • Very Large Array Radio Telescopes
    • Vibrant Saturated Images
    • Vintage Ford and Cadillac Manufacturing
    • Vintage - Pre -digital photos
    • Water
    • Why I Take Photographs
    • Widelux F6: First Roll
    • Widelux Panoramic Photos
    • Working
    • WWII Reenactment
  • Archive

Landscape Photographs

Picture
Story and photos by Bob Eckert
 
Although a lot of my landscape photography would be considered “traditional," the subjects I find most alluring are ones in which man’s hand on the environment is evidenced. I refer to the series as "Anti-Landscape Landscapes." The images might fall into the category of New Topographics, whose name came from an exhibit which opened in 1975.
 
I wasn’t aware of the “New Topographics” exhibit until years after it ended, but I realized I had a strong connection to the style and content of the work.
 
“New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape" was an exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography. It was curated by William Jenkins at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House (Rochester, New York) in January 1975.
 
The exhibition had a ripple effect on the whole medium and genre, not only in the United States, but in Europe, too, where generations of landscape photographers emulated and are still emulating the spirit and aesthetics of the exhibition. Since 1975 "New Topographics" photographers such as Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Frank Gohlke and Stephen Shore have influenced photographic practices regarding landscape around the world. Moreover, and as a proof of the impact of this exhibition beyond the American scene, three out of the ten photographers in the show were later commissioned by the French government for the Mission de la DATAR, namely Baltz, Gohlke and Shore.
 
In addition to the eight then-young American photographers, Jenkins also invited the German couple, Bernd and Hilla Becher, then teaching at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Germany). Since the late 1950s they had been photographing various obsolete structures, mainly post-industrial carcasses or carcasses-to-be, in Europe and America. They first exhibited them in series, as "typologies,” often shown in grids, under the title of "Anonymous Sculptures." They were soon adopted by the Conceptual Art movement.
 
Each photographer in the New Topographics exhibition was represented by 10 prints. All but Stephen Shore worked in black and white.
 
In his introduction to the catalogue, Jenkins defined the common denominator of the show as "a problem of style:" "stylistic anonymity,” an alleged absence of style. Jenkins mentioned Edward Ruscha's work, especially the numerous artist books (“26 Gasoline Stations” (1962), “Various Small Fires” (1964), “34 Parking Lots” (1967), and others) that he self-published in the 1960s as one of the inspirations for the exhibition and the photographers it features (except for the Bechers).
 
"The pictures were stripped of any artistic frills and reduced to an essentially topographic state, conveying substantial amounts of visual information but eschewing entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion and opinion.”
 
I suppose, as it’s said, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” Although a highway construction directional sign in the middle of the road, set against a backdrop of beautiful Southwestern plateaus isn’t necessarily considered beautiful, I do find it illustrative of man’s intrusion upon a lovely landscape — and the landscape, albeit with the intrusion of the highway and construction sign, is beautiful nevertheless.
 
It’s that combination of natural beauty and man’s intrusion that draws me. Do they “Eschew entirely the aspects of beauty, emotion and opinion,” as curator Jenkins stated, I think not.
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To contact Bob Eckert for assignments, consultations or workshops, please email [email protected]
​or use the contact form on the About page

  • Home
  • About
  • Clients
  • Projects
    • 2022 New Mexico Treasures Calendar
    • 2022 Pic of the Day
    • 2023 Pic of the Day
    • 2024 New Mexico Treasures Calendar
    • 2024 Pic of the Daly
    • Abandoned Buildings Series
    • Abiquiu Dam
    • Abiquiu Livestock Sale
    • Adjective Challenge
    • Aerial Photos
    • Agricultural Profile: Christopher Bassettt: Freshies of New Mexico Farm, Velarde, NM
    • Aircraft - BW Portraits
    • Agriculture
    • Albumen Prints
    • Albuquerque Aquarium
    • Albuquerque, New Mexico, Murals
    • Albuquerque Sunport Lowrider Show
    • Alt Fashion
    • Alt Portraits
    • Amish, Kalona, Iowa
    • Angel in Albuquerque
    • Art-o-Mat
    • Astro Zombies Murals
    • Behind the Scenes at the Circus
    • Birds
    • Black and White Photos
    • Black Mesa, San Ildefonso Pueblo
    • ​​Book Review: "Orale! Lowrider: Custom Made in New Mexico"
    • Breakdancing (b-boying or break-boying)
    • Brothers
    • Cabezon Peak
    • Calf Canyon, Hermits Peak Fire
    • Carlton, Oregon
    • Car Portraits
    • Cesar Chavez and the UFW
    • Cell Phones
    • Cerro Pedernal
    • Chama River (Rio Chama) Overlook — New Mexico
    • Chiaroscuro: Light and Dark
    • Chicano Park Murals
    • Children Portraits
    • Churches
    • Circus Behind the Scenes
    • Classical Gas Museum
    • Close Up Photos
    • Cloud Photos
    • Colors
    • Comic Con New Mexico
    • Computers
    • Concorso Santa Fe
    • Contrast
    • Crosswalk Painting
    • Cumbres Toltec
    • Day of the Dead, Albuquerque's Marigold Parade
    • Descansos
    • Design photographs in the style of Charles Sheeler
    • Detroit Street Photos
    • Dogs
    • Dragonfly Bus
    • Emma Eckert's Pendants
    • Explora Albuquerque
    • Fisheye Lens Portraits
    • Fisheye Lens Photos
    • Fisheye Lenses Discussed
    • Fog Smoke Haze in Photos
    • Gay Pride Parade
    • Ghost Ranch
    • Goggles Sunglasses and Masks
    • Goofing Around with mime Mark Wenzel
    • Gordon Tooley, Apple Guru
    • Hasselblad XPan Modification
    • Hats
    • Highway 550
    • Horizont Camera Panoramic Images
    • Humor
    • Industry
    • Indian Market Native Costumes
    • Infrared Photos
    • Infrared with a Leica M8 Camera
    • In Praise of Kit Lenses
    • In Praise of Manual Lenses
    • Insects
    • Instagram
    • International Center of Photography
    • Isabro Ortega, Truchas, NM, Woodcarver
    • Isolated Trees
    • Isolation Photos
    • Jeff Brock and Bombshell Betty
    • John Lea's Painted Truck
    • Juxtaposed
    • Kaleidoscope Photos
    • Lady of Guadalupe
    • Landscape Photos
    • License Plates
    • Light Quality
    • Lomography Spinner 360
    • Lowriders
    • Lowrider Day Espanola, NM
    • Lowrider Show 2013 Revisited
    • Lowrider Show Story August 2012
    • Lowrider Summer
    • Lowriders: Vintage San Francisco Bay Area Show
    • Luck in Photography
    • Luck in Photography vers 2.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 3.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 4.0
    • Luck (or Timing) in Photography vers 5
    • Luck in Photography vers 6.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 7.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 8.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 9.0
    • Luck in Photography vers 10
    • Luck in Photography vers 11
    • Luck in Photography vers 12
    • Luck in Photography vers 13
    • Luck in Photography vers 14
    • Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
    • Matachines de Alcalde
    • Mirror Images
    • Moody, Dark, Mysterious Photos
    • Moon Photos
    • Mountains
    • Moving Arts Espanola
    • Moving Landscapes
    • Murals in Espanola, New Mexico
    • Murals: Santa Fe, New Mexico
    • National Museum of Nuclear Science and History
    • Natural Dyeing with Glenna Dean
    • New Mexico Press Association 2022 Award Winner
    • New Mexico Press Association Award Winner
    • New Mexico Press Association 2024 Award Winner
    • New Orleans Street Photography
    • Nicholas Herrera El Rito Santero
    • NM Treasures 2023 Calendar Image
    • Northern New Mexico
    • Norteno Artist Portraits
    • Olympus Pen FT Half Frame First Photos
    • Owl Cafe, Albuquerque
    • Panoramic Mosaics
    • Panoramic Photos
    • Patterns in Photography
    • Pet Store Animal Photos
    • Photographers
    • Photographing Lowriders
    • Pic of the Day
    • Pink Cadillac
    • Plants and Flowers
    • Polaroids of Northern New Mexico
    • Portfolio of Ten
    • Portraits
    • Port of Portland
    • Portraits of Strangers
    • Published Favorites
    • Repetition in Photos
    • Resurrecting Film
    • Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County
    • Road to Pedernal
    • Rocket Heads Jewelry
    • San Francisco Chinatown
    • Santa Rosa de Lima Church Rluins
    • Scale in Photography
    • San Francisco Street Photos
    • Service People Portraits
    • Sequential Series Photos
    • Shadows
    • Shadows
    • Shooting Into The Sun
    • Snow Photos
    • Spanapalooza
    • Stand Alone Photos
    • Still Life Photos
    • Storm and Rain Photos
    • Street Photography
    • Sunset / Sunrise Photos
    • Sunrays
    • Surplus Love
    • The Yin/Yang of Families
    • Tibetan Monk Sand Painting
    • Timing in Photography
    • Trailer Landscapes
    • Trees
    • UNESCO Creative City - Santa Fe
    • United Farm Workers
    • Urban Landscapes
    • Variations on a Theme
    • Very Large Array Radio Telescopes
    • Vibrant Saturated Images
    • Vintage Ford and Cadillac Manufacturing
    • Vintage - Pre -digital photos
    • Water
    • Why I Take Photographs
    • Widelux F6: First Roll
    • Widelux Panoramic Photos
    • Working
    • WWII Reenactment
  • Archive