Tract House #21 1971

Lewis Baltz made this silver gelatin print, Tract House #21, at some point in the seventies. It's all about surfaces, you know? The wall is so flat, so white, that the subtle textures become like a language. Check out the window. The way the light hits it, it’s almost like another wall, but darker, denser. I love the way Baltz uses the grayscale to flatten the image, making the architectural details seem almost abstract. The way the window and the wood frame interrupt the flatness of the wall, it is so simple but powerful. Baltz is doing here what Ed Ruscha was doing at the same time, taking banal buildings and turning them into things of mystery, of beauty. It embraces ambiguity and multiple interpretations. It's all about seeing the world in new ways.