New Irvine Industrial Parks, No. 12, Lewis Baltz

Exhibition Label: "Claimed: Land Use in Western America," Jun-2007, Kate Meyer “Southern California is becoming the playground of the Republic, and Los Angeles is its capital. But those who come to play remain to work-to build hotels and office buildings, to establish railroads and factories, to develop the rich natural resources of the country. No ordinary rules explain its past growth or set limits to its future expansion. It has been, and it will be, a law unto itself.” William E. Smythe, The Conquest of Arid America, 1905 Archive Label 2003: Lewis Baltz successfully transformed the Modernist compositional style, which was concerned with geometric and spatial relationships, into a tool for social critique. In this photograph the focus on formal elements and lack of detail suggests the emptiness and banality of contemporary society. Exhibition Label: "Constructions of Place: Architecture in Photography," Jan-1991, Erin Barnett After studying architecture, Baltz pursued a career in photography; most of his subjects are housing tracts and industrial parks. A tension exists between the documentary nature of Baltz's work and the elegance of his compositions and richness of his prints. Like the photographer Walker Evans, who influenced him, Baltz depicts buildings frontally, creating a sense of objectivity and distance. Baltz uses this Modernist style to critique rapid suburbanizaiton.