Nevada is a central work of Baltz’s continued interest in the American West and its changing landscape. The photographs describe the development of the desert region of Nevada, near Reno: construction sites and their artifacts, vistas of newly built tract communities, and the desert environments that surround their imprint are traced with the high-key light of the western sun or glow of artificial light illuminating the darkness of night.
Lewis Baltz was born in Newport Beach, California in 1945. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969 and his MFA from Claremont Graduate School in 1971. That same year he was included in The Crowed Vacancy: Three Los Angeles Photographers, an exhibition that also included Anthony Hernandez and Terry Wild.
Baltz’s photographs of the transforming American landscape defined a central role in 1970’s landscape photography and influenced forthcoming generations of photographic practice. He, along with other notable photographers including Frank Gohlke, Robert Adams, Stephen Shore and John Schott came to prominence through their inclusion in the groundbreaking and influential exhibition, New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-altered Landscape, an exhibition organized at the George Eastman House in 1975.
Lewis Baltz
Nevada
November 15th – December 30th, 2016
Joseph Bellows Gallery
7661 Girard Avenue
La Jolla, CA 92037
Tel (858) 456-5620
josephbellows.com
Model Home, Shadow Mountain 1977
Mustang Bridge Exit, Interstate 80 1977
Nevada 33, Looking West 1977
Lemmon Valley, Looking Northwest, Toward Stead 1977
Lemmon Valley, Looking Northeast 1977
Lemmon Valley, Looking North 1977
Mill Street, Reno 1977
B Street, Sparks 1977
Night Construction 1977
New Construction, Shadow Mountain 1977
US 50, East of Carson City 1977
