Centre Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, Geneva, Switzerland Possibly 1989 - 2006

Lewis Baltz made this photograph of the European Centre for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland. Look at the scale of that room; it’s enormous! It’s the kind of space that holds immense computing power, and infinite possibility. It looks cool and clean, but also has a strangely fleshy palette—tan, peach, and warm whites. I feel for the artist here, wondering if he had to wait for permission to be in that room, or what his thoughts were about this machine. Did he feel intimidated by it? These cabinets remind me of Donald Judd sculptures, which often prompt a meditation on industrial materials and the role of repetition, but here they are in service of scientific endeavour. The way that the room is rendered in the image, the stark, cold lighting and the severe geometry, reminds me of a painting by an artist like Andreas Gursky. Artists are always looking at each other's work across time, responding and challenging, sharing ideas. Photography, like painting, is a form of expression that thrives on uncertainty. It’s a way of seeing the world, not fixing it.