1970s – 1990s

After long being ridiculed by art history as a purely technical visual medium, photography now found its way into museums. In the USA, photographers such as Stephen Shore and Joel Meyerowitz explored landscapes shaped by human influence. In many instances, the medium was increasingly being used conceptually – most prominently by Bernd and Hilla Becher, who influenced an entire generation of photographers from the late 1980s onwards.