Lewis Baltz, Lewis Baltz, 2017

Lewis Baltz (Newport Beach, California, 1945 – Paris, 2014) is one of the most important photographers of the second half of the 20th century. Traditionally, his work has been associated with the generation of photographers who came together for the New Topographical exhibition, who questioned the concept of landscape as beautiful, existential and almost sacred, and showed it as it really was, following the almost always unfortunate human intervention. Baltz saw the landscape as an urbanized, structured and populated space and portrayed these constructions as tenuous and practically faceless. For him the natural scenery had become landscape as real estate, where the countryside and the city were worth exactly the same in monetary terms and, just like a surveyor, he measured it step by step and recorded it in his photos.