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URBAN LANDSCAPES

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These are a few of a series of images made (obviously) in response to William
Jenkins’s 1975 exhibition (and book) New Topographics: Photographs of a
Man-Altered Landscape. What caught my attention – as it did many, was the
notion of a “style-less” photography that rendered the banal as well … banal!
Time has proved this a huge fiction of course for ironically, the stylistic effects of
the work of many of the represented photographers maintain a strong influence
to this day.

However, I did like the idea of minimizing the degree to which I imposed myself
upon the subject and still do.

This is not as easy as it sounds because the understandings of what makes
a “picture” in any given culture are deeply engrained in each of its members. In
the West – that is the “West” as shorthand for the privileged, educated, relatively
wealthy and secure “West” of Europe, North America and their adjuncts –
a “picture” can be made of anything by enclosing its image within a (usually)
rectangular frame. A camera being the ultimate picturing tool, subverting this
built-in nature is well – impossible but, being aware of that nature and trying to
subvert it does alter the kind of pictures one makes.

In these – and all the works in this series – my approach was to assess the site
that I wished to photograph and then attempt to determine exactly where to
place the camera so as to contain – and/or imply – the most information possible
relevant to what I believed that site to be about.

This approach still informs much of my work.