Lemmon Valley, looking Northeast Possibly 1977 - 1978

Lewis Baltz made this gelatin silver print, “Lemmon Valley, looking Northeast.” It’s a landscape, a stark, high contrast scene split between light and shadow. Those looming mountains, their texture, their rough skin picked up by the light, while at their feet, a town sits nestled in the dark. I imagine Baltz out there, waiting for the right moment, thinking about what it means to frame a landscape, to capture not just what’s there, but also the tension between nature and the built environment. It reminds me of Ed Ruscha’s gas stations, but quieter, more ominous. The stark black and white flattens everything. There’s a lot of space and emptiness above the mountains. I see the legacy of minimalist art and think about how photographers like Baltz changed how we see the world, turning the ordinary into something monumental and strange.