Why 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm Shaped the Way We Photograph Cities
Focal length has played a crucial role in shaping the visual language of urban landscape photography, particularly through the work of photographers associated with the New Topographics movement and their European counterparts. Photographers like Robert Adams, Stephen Shore, and Luigi Ghirri favored lenses such as 28mm, 35mm, and 50mm equivalents, which provided neutral or slightly wide perspectives that emphasized clarity and structure. These lens choices helped create a detached, observational style that defined how cities and suburban environments are visually documented.
- ▪Robert Adams frequently used a 300mm lens on 8×10 film, equivalent to a 40mm lens on a 35mm camera, contributing to a natural, structured perspective.
- ▪Stephen Shore primarily used a 305mm lens on 8×10 film, roughly equivalent to a 40mm field of view, reinforcing a neutral and unembellished depiction of the American landscape.
- ▪Lewis Baltz and Frank Gohlke used lenses translating to around a 35mm equivalent, allowing more spatial openness in their depictions of industrial and suburban environments.
- ▪William Eggleston often used a 28mm lens, creating an immersive, immediate experience in his color photography of everyday American scenes.
- ▪Luigi Ghirri, a key figure in Italian landscape photography, frequently used a 35mm lens to explore urban and territorial spaces with subtlety and attention to detail.
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by Alex Coghe April 28th, 2026 0 Comments Facebook X Flipboard 0 Comments In photography, style is often discussed in terms of subject matter, color, or composition. Certainly important aspects to consider, but much less frequently do we talk about something equally decisive: focal length. Yet if you look closely at the history of urban landscape photography, focal length reveals itself as a kind of quiet grammar.The way photographers frame cities, suburbs, and built environments is not only a matter of aesthetics. It is also the result of very specific choices about how wide or narrow the lens should see. And this is especially interesting since it concerns us much more than we might think, being photographers.
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