New Topographics returns to the George Eastman House this summer, on view alongside an exhibition of contemporary Dutch landscape photography. Much has changed in the worlds of art and photography since 1975, a gulf nearly as wide as the difference in Dutch and American attitudes towards the land. The Rochester City Newspaper features my review this week.

An excerpt:

<blockquote>Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art features 19 contemporary artists who’ve transplanted the spirit of “new topography” to a much, much different location. While much of the original New Topographics work dissected the American West, consider this: the single state of Colorado is over six times the size of the Netherlands. Historically, the Dutch have never had the luxury of space, and their dense and still growing population has led to colossal projects where water is carefully controlled, the land drained and made useable for living and agriculture. The result is a landscape that is orderly and precise, eschewing the haphazard, “we’ll-just-put-it-here” anti-reasoning that infected American westward expansion.</blockquote>
Read the complete article at the Rochester City Newspaper website, and visit New Topographics and Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art at the George Eastman House.

Nature as Artifice: New Dutch Landscape in Photography and Video Art | Through August 16
New Topographics | Through September 27
George Eastman House, 900 East Ave.
Tue-Sat 10 a.m.-5 p.m. (Thu until 8 p.m.), Sun 1-5 p.m.
585-271-3361 | <a href=”http://eastmanhouse.org/”>eastmanhouse.org</a>