New Topographics (September 2018)

In my recent 'unfinished villas' posts I stated that I found photographing aspects of the development both interesting and challenging but didn't offer any further explanation. In this post I would like to expand upon this leading to a selection of photographs influenced by 'new topographics'.

There is clearly a big contrast between the natural environment of the Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote (see my previous post) and holiday resorts like Playa Blanca. Given the relatively young age of the volcanoes in the National Park it is extraordinary that less than 300 years later the island is dominated by the tourism industry with a high proportion of people travelling from another island almost 3000 miles away. It is a strange world!

Our holiday to Lanzarote wasn't our first, we actually visited the island about 25 years ago, and arriving this time we immediately recognised how much development had taken place since the 1990s - something we confirmed when we returned home and studied our old holiday photographs. Many of the places that we enjoyed on the current holiday weren't built when we first visited more than 20 years ago.

Whilst it is evident that there has been a boom in visitors since the 1990's there is also evidence of the problems caused by the financial crash in 2008 which seemingly suspended or halted the spread of development with a corresponding impact on the natural environment.

As I observed this, I was reminded of the New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape exhibition and photography movement from the 1970's. The contributing photographers changed the perception of landscape photography by focusing on the relationship between people and nature. Their photographs included industrial intrusions in the landscape and mundane scenes of urbanisation in the USA.

Increasingly, I find myself inspired by this type of photography and the New Topographic approach influenced this selection of images taken of a road that runs alongside Montana Roja; an extinct volcano in Playa Blanca. One particular stretch looks unused, not one car passed whilst I was walking along the pavement. I can see from a map that the road eventually joins a route which circles the volcano and I did wonder whether the road was prepared for further development that never took place.

My new topography selection builds upon my previous posts to present a different view of a holiday island. It doesn't seek to make any value judgments in this respect and simply reflects what I see as an landscape photographer:

More information on New Topographics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Topographics