San Quentin Point, no. 24 Possibly 1982 - 1985

Lewis Baltz shot this image, "San Quentin Point, no. 24" with a camera, sometime around the turn of the millennium. It’s a straight-on shot of cracked earth, bleached bone-white by the sun. The light is so flat, you could almost mistake it for a drawing. It reminds me of those minimalist etchings by Agnes Martin, or maybe a Cy Twombly chalkboard but what’s so interesting is the total lack of anything painterly. There’s no evidence of a hand, just the brutal Californian light revealing the earth’s slow decay. Look closely and you’ll see a small cross-shaped mark, like an X, as if marking the spot of some buried treasure. Is it natural or man-made? It could be either, it doesn't really matter. Baltz was a master of this kind of ambiguity. Think of the Bechers' photographs of water towers and industrial buildings, but with an added layer of social commentary. Baltz’s art doesn’t tell you what to think. Rather, it shows you how to think.