The Baltz Parallel

The closest ever I have come to seeing a photograph and having the strange feeling that it could have been done by me is the photograph ‘Sunflower Condominiums’ by Lewis Baltz, reproduced in the catalogue of the ‘American Images 1945-1980’ Barbican exhibition. Actually, every time I look at it, I have the feeling it is a photograph of mine I am looking at. A coincidence of some sort, I thought. And even if it were more than a coincidence, this single occurrence did not warrant or allow making any conclusions or presumptions that I could apply to the interpretation of my work. Having stumbled upon this singularity after so many years of looking at photographs I obviously could not entertain the hope of seeing soon another example.

One year later I saw the publication of the reprinted edition of Baltz’s Industrial Parks, and the ‘miracle’ repeated itself. Well, almost - except that this time I did not have the feeling I was looking at my own work, but images very similar to mine. There was, however, a new stupefying aspect to the similarity. The chronological order. Our respective developments followed a similar pattern. Asking myself how come I did not see this work before, I realised that Baltz’s books were not readily available in British public and university libraries and I was able to see only selections of his work and never the entire work.

Curiously enough, Baltz has since moved on to ‘digital’ art and made a clean break with New Topography. In the words of Cornelia H. Butler 'Baltz broke with the monographic series and began making largescale, synoptic color murals. Abondoning the formally elegant documentary pictures for which he is best known, he imported techniques and formal cues from other visual media such as video and film.'

 

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