Google meets Garnett

The blogosphere is excited about the launch of Google satellite mapping. According to blogosphere linkage guide Daypop, Google Sightseeing is the second-most linked to site in the last week. (As of this posting, GS is up. However, GS has been fighting traffic overload all morning, so if at first the link doesn't work, try, try again.) Google Sightseeing finds cool landmarks by using Google's satellite feature, and posts the pictures -- that's the Saarinen-designed Gateway Arch at left.

Americans' fascination with overhead photography is nothing new: William Garnett made a career out of it, and aerial photography has also been explored by Emmet Gowin (that's a fab link) and David Maisel, who recently had a strong, Garnettish solo show at Von Lintel Gallery in Chelsea.

While aerial photography pre-dates WWI, it was during the world wars that photographers most explored the potential of aerial image-making. (Aside: Has any curator put together a show about artists and their experiences in WWI and WWII --and especially about how their military service impacted their future work? If not, someone should. If so, email me.)

When WWI broke out, Edward Steichen quickly found himself in the Signal Corps' Photographic Division, where he made several scientific breakthroughs in the field of reconnaissance photogrpahy. Once he was out of the Corps, Steichen did not revisit aerial photography, leaving the field empty for Garnett, who made a career of documentary-style aerial work. (The UC Press published a book of Garnett's work in 1994.)

In hindsight, Garnett (that's his Finished Housing, taken over Lakewood, Calif. in 1950, at right) was the father of the New Topographics. His often witty, from-on-high photographs of the development of California during its boom years anticipate the the documentation of human encroachment into landscape that the New Topos explored in the 1970's and 1980's. His photographs also anticipate the minimalists' focus on seriality. As we've noted here before, the Getty recently purchased a trove of work from the 89-year old Garnett.

Related: MANfave Beverly Tang points us toward more satellite photos, and to a discussion of the eco-enviro importance of the photographs. Another elder statesman of the New Topos will have a show in Chelsea this fall: Hank Wessel at Charles Cowles.