Air France, Sophia Antipolis, France Possibly 1989 - 2006

This is Air France, Sophia Antipolis, France, a photograph by Lewis Baltz, though without a date it's hard to pin down. It’s one of those images where the apparent coldness is so intense that it starts to feel warm again. It’s a picture of the modern workplace at the time, which is to say, a room full of early computers. It’s all about the texture of the surface, a kind of bureaucratic, industrial, late-modern aesthetic, right? The cool blues and greys, the way everything's been arranged so neatly, and the light, how it bounces off the ceiling tiles. All these things give you a sense of the space. There's one detail, though: "Console 0/1" is stenciled on one of the consoles. I like how the artist's eye is drawn to the almost absurd specificity of this small detail. I can see a kinship with the work of Bernd and Hilla Becher, maybe? It’s a really interesting thing, this conversation across art, across time.