Park City 94 1979

Lewis Baltz made this gelatin silver print, 'Park City 94', in 1994, and what strikes me is the way he's made something so seemingly bland, so visually uneventful, into something so compelling. It’s like the anti-photo, right? I think Baltz is playing with the idea of surface and structure; the texture here is almost uniform. The light, coming in from the windows, washes out the space. You can see the marks from the drywall, but even those seem muted, subdued. Look at the way the light hits the wall to the right of the central window. It’s like the wall is breathing. In a way, this photo reminds me of some of the early minimalist sculptures, like Donald Judd's stacks. There's a similar interest in repetition and seriality, but Baltz is doing it with a camera, not with steel or concrete. Ultimately, Baltz is asking us to look, really look, at the world around us, even the parts that seem the most ordinary.