Laguna Beach 1969

Lewis Baltz made this photograph, Laguna Beach, most likely in the 1970s, through a straight, seemingly documentary approach, where everything seems to be in equal focus. The tonality, mostly greys, is like a blank slate that welcomes a lot of meanings. The surface almost feels like it's there to be read, as if that wall were a piece of paper. The texture of the wall is really brought forward by the monochrome, almost as if it were a printmaking plate. And that blanked-out square window, is it a secret, a locked door, a negative space or a shadow? You know, I think of Robert Ryman looking at this picture, with his focus on the wall, the plane, and the surface as its own meaning. The meaning of the work, like in a Ryman painting, isn't in the representation but in the presentation. The conversation keeps going.