Tract House #25 1971

Lewis Baltz made this gelatin silver print, Tract House #25, sometime in the twentieth century. What I see here is an image of a wall with two windows. But, wait, is the wall a painting in itself? I can imagine Baltz thinking, what does it mean to look? I wonder if he was thinking of the Conceptual photographers, like the Bechers, or even back to Walker Evans and his fascination with the ordinary? He presents us with this façade, the wall built, like a painting, with layers of mud and plaster. I think of Lucio Fontana, the way he punctured the canvas, and how that single act changed painting forever. The scratches on the windows are like gestures, obscuring and revealing at the same time. He is playing with the same formal language as us painters, but with a camera. What are we looking at when we look at a painting? It is never just the surface, it is an opening.