As a young photographer, Lewis Baltz became fascinated by the stark, sometimes repellent, manmade landscapes fast replacing the mostly agrarian Southern California. The photos he made became a portfolio, New Industrial Parks Near Irvine, California, and when they were first published in 1974, Baltz was hailed as the father of a new way of thinking which resonated with photographers around the world. The Topographic movement unflinchingly details the landscape of construction sites and suburban sprawl, turning utilitarian, anti-artistic sites into works of strange, minimalist beauty.