Lewis Baltz

[Mark Minard]

Wanted to share what I found to be a brief yet insightful essay on the late Lewis Baltz.
http://davidcampany.com/fast-worlds-slow-photography/

 

[Mark Minard]

I'm fond of Lewis Baltz's work, and New Topographics in general. Thanks for posting this.

You're welcome. If you're a fan then you've probably already read this, but in case you haven't seen the "last interview" here it is:

Dead Link Removed

 

[Mark Minard]

It seems the "last interview" I posted above is now behind a paywall.

Here is another excellent read; Lewis goes into some detail regarding his materials and processes which I found enlightening.

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-lewis-baltz-15758#transcript

 

[Bill Burk]

Thanks for sending this our way...

I think I have a new "favorite" writer to follow...

 

[ic-racer]

Thanks for the link. I downloaded the PDF to my photography library.

 

[Mark Minard]

Thanks for sending this our way...

I think I have a new "favorite" writer to follow...

You're welcome! Baltz is an interesting guy.

 

[Mark Minard]

Thanks for the link. I downloaded the PDF to my photography library.

You're welcome. Definetly worth saving.

 

[chip j]

It seems the "last interview" I posted above is now behind a paywall.

Here is another excellent read; Lewis goes into some detail regarding his materials and processes which I found enlightening.

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-lewis-baltz-15758#transcript

What a great interview! We need more posts like this.

 

[gr82bart]

Thanks for the post
Inspired me to learn more about him
Some more links I went to:
https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/lewis-baltz?all/all/all/all/0

http://www.americansuburbx.com/artists/lewis-baltz

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/11/...rapher-of-american-landscapes-dies-at-69.html

http://www.bjp-online.com/2014/11/lewis-baltz-tribute-gerry-badger/

https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/beauty-desolation-and-destruction-work-lewis-baltz-photographer

http://seeingscience.umbc.edu/2016/08/lewis-baltz-1945-2014/

Regards, Art

 

[Mark Minard]

Thanks Art, you found a couple I missed.

I'll also add the link to his collection at the George Eastman House:
http://collections.eastman.org/people/4168/lewis-baltz/objects

 

[sepiareverb]

Thanks for these links. He has long been a favorite of mine.

 

[Mark Minard]

More Baltz:

Lewis Baltz | TateShots - YouTube

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

If you like the banal, commonplace photography of William Eggleston, you'll like Baltz. He wasn't into aesthetic photography for the sake of beauty. Not my taste.

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

If you like the banal, commonplace photography of William Eggleston, you'll like Baltz. He wasn't into aesthetic photography for the sake of beauty. Not my taste.

"Unfortunately, my life very rarely involved going to Yosemite [National Park, CA]. My life was about going to shopping centers, being in a town, an urban situation, which seemed to me was also a landscape but one that no one had any interest in looking at. But I was interested in looking at it." -- Lewis Baltz

 

[reddesert]

More Baltz:

Lewis Baltz | TateShots - YouTube

Nice video. In it Baltz makes the interesting point that photography is a reductive art - it needs to simplify the view to reduce it to the interesting subject parts - as opposed to nearly all the other arts that begin with the equivalent of a blank canvas and add things to it. I am sure that people could dig up minor counterexamples, but it's a useful point.

Although Baltz and William Eggleston both have photographed things that seemed everyday to the point of (sometimes) escaping notice, I don't think their photographs or their practice (or subject matter) really resemble each other at all.

 

[tomkatf]

Nicknamed "Duke" according to a classmate that knew him c.1972...

 

[Algo después]

I had never paid attention to Baltz's work and what I have seen has enchanted me. It is recognized that he had a very minimalist sensibility (type Rothko, Reinhardt, etc.). In that sense, he seems closer to Hiroshi Sugimoto or Uta Barth (or even filmakers as James Benning* ) than Eggleston.

Thanks for sharing.

*p.d.... some of his pics reminds me this movie: One Way Boogie Woogie

 

[Pieter12]

as opposed to nearly all the other arts that begin with the equivalent of a blank canvas and add things to it.

Well, a photographer putting together a still life inside would usually start with a blank surface and add to it--even adding light as needed. On the other hand a sculptor might start with a block of stone or wood and remove parts of it to achieve the end result.

 

[Mark Minard]

More Baltz:

A show at Corcoran Gallery of Art entitled "The Nation's Capital in Photographs, 1976"

Description from the Gallery Luisotti webpage (https://galleryluisotti.com/news/robert-cumming-lewis-baltz-at-the-corcoran-gallery-of-art/):
"In 1976 Robert Cumming and Lewis Baltz were included in “The Nation’s Capital in Photographs”, an unprecedented Bicentennial project originated by The Corcoran Gallery of Art. Eight eminent American photographers were invited to spend extended periods–at least a month–in Washington, D.C during 1975-76 to photograph the city, its environs and people, each was guided by their own vision."

I found the essay by curator Jane Livingston a worthwhile read. Exhibition catalog with essay and photographs here:

https://galleryluisotti-d420.kxcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/CorcoanGalleryofArt-Maryland.pdf

Enjoy!