Tract House #21 1971

Lewis Baltz made this photograph, Tract House #21, with a camera sometime before 2014. Look at that vertical dark rectangle against the expanse of flat white wall. It’s like a Barnett Newman zip, but instead of being painted, it's...a window? It's a window on a building that seems like it’s part of a development. What was Baltz thinking when he took this photograph? Was he interested in the way that these buildings are all the same, but also different? I imagine him walking around this development, looking for the perfect angle, the perfect light, to capture the essence of this place. I see a connection between Baltz's photographs and the work of other artists who are interested in the built environment, like Bernd and Hilla Becher. They're all part of a conversation about how we shape the world around us. It's a conversation that's been going on for centuries, and it's one that I'm sure will continue for many years to come.