The Altered Landscape commemorates the Nevada Museum of Art's 80th anniversary and celebrates the institution's signature photography collection that examines human interaction and intervention with the environment.
The book includes more than 100 contemporary photographers who push the boundaries of landscape photography to question human impacts on the land rather simply celebrating the beauty of the landscape. While they take various approaches, together the 100 artists offer a panoramic sweep of the social and political debates that have shaped contemporary discourse on the changing environment. From Robert Adams and Lewis Baltz, two of the most influential photographers to document the environmental destruction in the American West in the late 20th century; to Richard Misrach and Mark Klett who examine abuse of natural resources; to Lewis Baltz, whose topographic work examines the crises of technology - their work has influenced a generation of photographers who have investigated the limits of photographic objectivity.
Organised in loose chronological order to cover a 30-year span. Images of natural landscapes marked by tract housing projects, mining and military installations, and artificial waterways are predominant in this era. Alongside these pioneering photographers are images by artists who use techniques that draw attention to the photographic process and the photograph-as-object, using colour alteration, montage, visual metaphors and puns, and textual elements to suggest levels of humour and irony related to contemporary landscapes. Essayists discuss the dialogue about the impact of human activity on natural landscapes.
