Landscape Photographer Lewis Baltz Landscape Photographer

Biography Born on September 12, 1945 in Newport Beach, California. BA in Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institution. Master of Fine Arts degree from Claremont Graduate School.

Childhood He moved from California to Paris. The only child of a couple who owned a mortuary business. His father, who was also Newport Beach’s deputy coroner, was an alcoholic who died of cirrhosis of the liver when Baltz was 11. At the age of 14 he started working at a camera store and the photographer William Current took him under his wing and gave him books, advice and a view of the wider world of art beyond the conservative oceanside towns of Southern California.

Photography His formally black-and-white images of parking lots, office parks, industrial garage doors and the backs of anonymous warehouses helped forge a new tradition of American landscape photography in an age of urban sprawl. In an interview in 1992, he said: “Coming from Orange County, I watched the ghastly transformation of this place — the first wave of bulimic capitalism sweeping across the land, next door to me. I sensed that there was something horribly amiss and awry about my own personal environment.”

Tract House no. 1, 1971 From the series The Tract Houses gelatin silver print 6 x 9 inch / 14 x 22 cm

Fairfax, 1973 From the series The Prototype Works vintage gelatin silver print 8 x 10 inch / 20 x 25.2 cm

Santa Fe, 1973 From the series The Prototype Works vintage gelatin silver print 8 x 10 inch / 20 x 25.2 cm

Tract House no. 4, 1971 From the series The Tract Houses gelatin silver print 6 x 9 inch / 14.7 x 22.3 cm

Anechoic Chamber, France Telecom Laboratories, Lannion, France From the series 89-91 Sites of Technology c-print, diasec 43 x 57 inch / 108 x 144 cm

Santa Cruz B, 1970 From the series The Prototype Works gelatin silver print

Centre Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, Geneva, Switzerland, 1989 - 1991 From the series 89-91 Sites of Technology c-print, diasec 57 x 43 inch / 144 x 108 cm

Tract House no. 14, 1971 From the series The Tract Houses gelatin silver print 6 x 9 inch / 13.9 x 21.5 cm

Channel Tunnel, Pas-de-Calais, France From the series 89-91 Sites of Technology c-print, diasec 43 x 57 inch / 108 x 144 cm

Cooling Tank, 1989 - 1992 From the series 89-91 Sites of Technology c-print, diasec 43 x 57 inch / 108 x 144 cm

Unoccupied office, Mitsubishi, Vitre (FR), 1989 - 1992 From the series 89-91 Sites of Technology c-print, diasec 43 x 57 inch / 108 x 144 cm

France Télécom Laboratories, Nice, 1989 - 1992 From the series 89-91 Sites of Technology c-print, diasec 43 x 57 inch / 108 x 144 cm

National Centre for Meteorological Research, Grenoble, 1989 - 1992 From the series 89-91 Sites of Technology c-print, diasec 43 x 57 inch / 108 x 144 cm

Orange County, 1970 From the series The Prototype Works vintage gelatin silver print 6 x 8 inch / 13.5 x 21.3 cm

References Photographs from http://www.galeriezander.com/en/artist/lewis_baltz/works Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Baltz Other photographs from http://www.mocp.org/detail.php?type=related&kv=6860&t=people