Hidden Valley, looking South Possibly 1977 - 1978

Lewis Baltz made this photograph, Hidden Valley, looking South, and it’s all about the way he sees, and wants us to see too. The greyscale gives it this real formal quality, you know? It’s not about a landscape, it’s about light, texture, the way the eye moves around. Look at the ground, that carpet of scrub. Each little bush is carefully described, but not really. It’s more about the tone, the relative darkness and lightness. That’s Baltz, that’s his process. A real attention to detail, but always in service of a larger idea. It makes me think of Bernd and Hilla Becher, you know? That deadpan, objective approach. But with Baltz, there’s something else, something about the emptiness, the alienation of the modern landscape. It’s not just a valley, it’s a state of mind.