Between Sidewinder Road and State Highway 248, Looking North 1978

Editor: This is Lewis Baltz's "Between Sidewinder Road and State Highway 248, Looking North," a gelatin-silver print from 1978. It's stark and kind of bleak; the desolation is really prominent. What do you make of it? Curator: Well, at first glance, this photograph documents a seemingly barren landscape. But considering Baltz's work within the New Topographics movement, and more broadly within a socio-political context, the image becomes a powerful statement on the transformation, even exploitation, of the American West. This isn't just a neutral scene, is it? Editor: I hadn't considered it in terms of exploitation... It just looked empty. Now that you say it, I'm thinking about land use policies. Is Baltz commenting on those directly? Curator: Perhaps not *directly*, but certainly implicating them. Consider the time. The 1970s were a period of heightened environmental awareness, alongside debates about urban sprawl and its effects. Where do you think this image fits into that broader discourse? How might it function as a critique? Editor: I guess seeing this sort of altered landscape, devoid of signs of human thriving and with possible construction or something else entirely, emphasizes the destructive impact... which would feed into environmentalist narratives, wouldn't it? Curator: Precisely. The very act of photographing and exhibiting this kind of "non-scenic" view challenges traditional landscape photography and romantic notions of the untouched wilderness. Think about who gets to decide what a 'beautiful' landscape is. Baltz forces us to confront a different reality. Editor: So it's less about the beauty and more about making people question what they think landscape photography is *for*, and who gets to define it, right? That’s something I hadn’t picked up on initially. Curator: Exactly! I'm glad we've both learned something today.