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New Topographics and Generic Transformation in Landscape Photography of the 1970s

The 1975 exhibition New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape, at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York aimed to redefine the genre of landscape in photography. Curator William Jenkins asserted that the photographs in the show were characterized by documentary style, objective description, and status as document. The characteristics Jenkins identified in new landscape photography were first brought to the public's attention by Nathan Lyons' 1966 exhibition Toward a Social Landscape at Eastman House and John Szarkowski's 1967 exhibition New Documents at the Museum of Modern Art. I argue that Jenkins' conception of new landscape photography took part in a growing trend in the 1970s of the theory and criticism of established genres in literature and film. The demythologization of the landscape genre in New Topographics mirrors what film theorist and critic John G. Cawelti described in his 1977 article, "Chinatown and Generic Transformation in Recent American Films," as the demythologization of the genre's founding myth. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2013. / March 25, 2013. / genre, landscape, New Topographics, photography, survey, Timothy
O'Sullivan / Includes bibliographical references. / Adam Jolles, Professor Directing Thesis; Karen Bearor, Committee Member; Michael Carrasco, Committee Member.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_253338
ContributorsHigbee, Lauren Gammill (authoraut), Jolles, Adam (professor directing thesis), Bearor, Karen (committee member), Carrasco, Michael (committee member), Department of Art History (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution)
PublisherFlorida State University, Florida State University
Source SetsFlorida State University
LanguageEnglish, English
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, text
Format1 online resource, computer, application/pdf
RightsThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them.

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