Lewis Baltz
1945–2014
In 1975 work by Lewis Baltz was included in a groundbreaking exhibition at the International Museum of Photography at the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York. New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape featured ten photographers whose work considered the impact of postwar industrialization and urbanization on natural and built environments. Often using large-format cameras, the photographers recorded these developments with an unsentimental approach that aimed for objectivity, forswearing the picturesque scenes and romanticized vistas that historically had dominated the genre of landscape photography. Baltz has produced series of photographs of industrial parks, warehouses, construction sites, recreational areas, and centers of technological and scientific research. He frequently photographs the same subject multiple times over a period of years, the better to register change and transformation.
The Tract Houses is a portfolio of twenty-five black-and-white photographs of the exteriors of new homes under construction on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Baltz took the images between 1969 and 1971, during the peak of the exodus from city to suburb, and his photographs document the region’s vernacular period architecture in a straightforward, deadpan manner, exposing cheap construction and banal details. Yet the photographs are neither compositionally nor aesthetically neutral: here, for example, the arrangement of windows and air vents creates a loose grid—an abstract pattern that is particularly striking in black and white.
Introduction
Lewis "Duke" Baltz (September 12, 1945 – November 22, 2014) was an American visual artist, photographer, and educator. He was an important figure in the New Topographics movement of the late 1970s. His best known work was monochrome photography of suburban landscapes and industrial parks which highlighted his commentary of void within the "American Dream".
He wrote for many journals, and contributed regularly to L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui.
Baltz's work is held in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Wikidata identifier
Q353266
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed April 30, 2025.
Introduction
American artist known for his photographic works acquired a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Claremont Graduate School. He was included in the influential “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape,” exhibition at the George Eastman House in 1975.
Country of birth
United States
Roles
Artist, lecturer, photographer
ULAN identifier
500011333
Names
Lewis Baltz
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed April 30, 2025.
