Park City 2 1979

Lewis Baltz created this photograph, Park City 2, using gelatin silver, capturing more than just a landscape; it’s like a map of a certain kind of seeing. The tones are so evenly distributed, it's almost like a drawing. My eye keeps returning to the area where the houses huddle together, like tiny, individual marks making up a larger form. It reminds me that artmaking is always a process of addition, where many smaller gestures accumulate to create a complex whole. What’s so compelling is how Baltz handles the texture; the surface of the houses, the shrubbery, and the hills. It’s all finely detailed, but without any drama. It’s in this muted, almost indifferent approach that the photograph finds its power. Thinking about artists who influence one another, I see something of Bernd and Hilla Becher’s cool, detached style here, a similar interest in documenting the mundane. Ultimately, though, Baltz’s Park City 2 stands on its own, inviting us to find beauty, and maybe even a little discomfort, in the everyday.