San Quentin Point, no. 37B Possibly 1982 - 1985

Lewis Baltz made this photograph, San Quentin Point, no. 37B, sometime before his death in 2014, likely with a large format camera. It is hard to tell exactly when it was made because the process, here, seems almost geological, the grayscale palette evokes a sense of timelessness, like the earth itself. The picture plane feels dry, like cracked earth baked by the sun. The surface is almost entirely desaturated. Every detail seems to fight for attention - the cracked earth, the small stones, the shadows. Then, rising vertically through this landscape is a thin, almost brittle looking plant. This plant feels incredibly fragile, especially in a picture like this. It puts me in mind of Bernd and Hilla Becher, with their typologies of industrial structures, where the accumulation of images outweighs the importance of any one view. Here, Baltz directs our attention to the margins, the edge spaces, the overlooked.