LANDSCAPE PHOTOGRAPHY AS A VEHICLE FOR PROTEST was a new idea when the George Eastman House mounted "New Topographics: Man-Altered Landscapes" in 1975. The first major exhibition in which contemporary photographers rejected a heroic view of the wilderness, as exemplified by Ansel Adams among others, this landmark show presented the effects of human depredation on the natural world. Nearly three decades later, the message reverberates exponentially with a group of photographers and video makers whose work is on view at the International Center of Photography.

Headed by Robert Adams, who figured prominently in "New Topographics," this survey, comprised of more than 100 works by artists from 14 countries, reveals the myriad ways in which the camera can be used to evoke the emotional connections we make with our surroundings. Fear of natural disasters, global warming, and war take dimensional form here in both print and video installations. Humor and beauty are also present, but not without a tacit understanding that when man controls nature, disaster more than likely ensues.

This theme, which resonates at various frequencies throughout, underscores the irony of the show's title. While some of the wall texts propose "alternative futures" for life on this planet, the political and pictorial realities that abound here make this notion a rather hard sell. Nevertheless, this hotly anticipated show is a feast for the eyes, the mind - and the ears: forest sounds piped into the galleries lend yet another dimension to the densely layered experience on hand.

Among the images that will be familiar to many visitors are mural-sized pieces by Mitch Epstein, from his "American Power" series; by Simon Norfolk, from a body of work on ruins he began soon after the events of 9/11; by Clifford Ross, from his series of Western landscapes inspired by 19th-century "view" photographers; by Thomas Ruff, whose super-pixilated view of Iraqi wetlands, appropriated from the internet, evokes a woozy sensation of what it might be like to go blind.

Also on hand are a striking video by Catherine Chalmers, known for "American Cockroach" and projections of documentary images about the tragic consequences of natural disaster (Vincent LaForet on Hurricane Katrina); species extinction (Patrick Brown on endangered species); global warming (Gilles Mingasson on the Inupiat people of Alaska); and deforestation (Christopher LaMarca on logging in designated wilderness areas). At the show's entrance, fittingly, is a wall of small black-and-white images by Robert Adams that paraphrase Turning Back: A Photographic Journal of Re-exploration, his study of the destruction unleashed by forest companies along the path of Lewis and Clark's Corps of Discovery expedition.

Following are a few highlights from this provocative and entertaining exhibition.

Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin documented pine forests in Israel that were systematically planted over the ruins of evacuated Arab towns since 1948. These seemingly pristine places, photographed in the forgiving light of dawn, reinforce "a feeling of harmless beauty, the myth of nature." Adopting the notion of the sublime and the picturesque from 19th-century academic painting, the duo have created views that conjure up the insidious sort of revisionist thinking "that if anything evil exists here, it must be in your imagination or subconscious." On reading the wall text, this viewer was immediately reminded of Israel's forced evacuation of Jewish settlers from Gaza last August. The two images here are part of a larger body of work, "Chicago: Everything That Happened, Happened Here First," to be published in November by Steidl.

Harry Kallio recreated the extinct dodo based on a study of scientific documents, then photographed his two models in the island Mauritius, the flightless bird's original habitat. A large-scale color print, with the dodos digitally multiplied, is flanked by vitrines displaying the models and Kallio's reference materials to create a natural history museum in miniature.

Alessandra Sanguinetti, who concurrently has a show at Yossi Milo Gallery, portrays the quotidian pace of life on a family farm outside Buenos Aries, with the inevitable demise of its domestic animals.

Wang Quinsong's monumental triptych "Come! Come!" depicts hundreds of banner-carrying protesters demonstrating in a dried-up section of China's Grand Canal. In a rear view of the crowd, slogans reminiscent of Cultural Revolution propaganda are interspersed with Western corporate logos (Cosco, Motorola, FedEx, MacDonald's) that iterate the consumption-obsessed culture of China today.

A short film by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadillo follows six tortoises perched on a log that drifts down China's polluted Pearl River. Viewed from an amphibious point of view, the massive cranes, gantries and hi-rise construction lining the river are occasionally obliterated by passing ships that somehow avoid annihilating these woeful creatures.

The design and installation of the exhibition is yet another reason to applaud. From the handsomely printed and framed images, many of colossal size, to the quality of the videos, to the outrageous and completely appropriate bloblules fabricated in a post-consumer petroleum byproduct called Turbolit that house many of the videos, and occasionally provide comfortable seating, Ecotopia is a destination you'll want to add to your Fall itinerary.

Photo, above: Greetings from the Salton Sea, 2004, ©2006 Kim Stringfellow, courtesy the artist.
Photo, below: The North Gate of Baghdad (After Corot), 2003 ©2006 Simon Norfolk, courtesy Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York.

Ecotopia: The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video, runs through January 7, 2007.

Alessandra Sanguinetti at Yossi Milo Gallery

Sam Easterson at Daniel Cooney Fine arts

Read Roberta Smith's review in The New York Times