Institut Pasteur, Paris, France Possibly 1989 - 2006

Curator: This image, potentially created between 1989 and 2006, captures a seemingly banal interior space. It’s titled “Institut Pasteur, Paris, France” and is a photograph by Lewis Baltz. It strikes me with its quiet stillness, a kind of scientific poetry in the mundane. What are your first impressions? Editor: Sterile, definitely. And slightly ominous. Like the calm before a storm...or a scientific breakthrough. It’s all hard surfaces and regulated temperature, I imagine. My soul just shivered a bit. Curator: Baltz often explored the intersection of architecture and power. Here, we see a laboratory, a space of rigorous control and experimentation, but it’s depicted with an almost clinical detachment. Does the work, its public display in effect, endorse that control? Condemn it? Or simply display the scene, without judging the value or implications? Editor: I think the detachment is the point. The open doors and panels create a visual layering, almost like we're peeling back the layers of scientific investigation itself. You see a kind of brutalist honesty. And look, that shrouded object in the foreground heightens the intrigue—science and mystery intermixed. What secrets does it hold? Is that container to sterilize some instruments in? The imagination wanders.... Curator: Exactly! It is fascinating how Baltz manages to make the quotidian feel significant. The photograph encourages us to look beyond the surface and consider the underlying social and ethical implications of scientific research. Institutions and knowledge…and a good aesthetic, too. What's your view of that aesthetic? Editor: Well, that color palette… I almost want to call it institutional drab, but there’s also a certain muted elegance to it. It complements the conceptual rigor of the piece. He invites you into a space that many don’t experience. The very human aspect of what we perceive to be distanced and highly objective spaces. I also feel like the coldness that I referred to might point at Baltz wanting to expose this inhuman facet. Curator: I see it in the layering and in the industrial elements framed here. To me, Baltz offers a nuanced reflection on our relationship with scientific progress. It's neither a celebration nor a condemnation but a contemplation of its pervasive influence on our lives. Editor: And how he's found such profound metaphors within this visual restraint is remarkable. I now feel the chills a bit differently, more like awe. Thanks for that deeper insight! Curator: Anytime! The more we look, the more that awe and that perspective is there. It is an endless journey to be certain!