Nevada 33, looking West Possibly 1977 - 1978

Lewis Baltz made this gelatin silver print, titled Nevada 33, looking West. This artwork is rooted in photography, which is both a documentary and a creative process. In this artwork, the tonal range, from stark whites to deep blacks, captures the harsh light of the Nevada desert. Baltz’s printing process and choice of paper contribute to the photograph’s texture, accentuating the granularity of the sand and the smoothness of the distant mountains. The flat perspective emphasizes the unrelenting horizontality of the landscape, highlighting the marks left by human intervention, such as tire tracks and utility poles. Baltz’s approach to photography departs from traditional landscape photography. Instead of celebrating nature's beauty, he documents the impact of human activity on the environment, thereby inviting a reflection on labor, land use, and the evolving relationship between industry and the natural world. By considering both the photographic process and the scene captured, we can understand the artwork as a commentary on social and environmental issues, rather than just a landscape.