Lewis Baltz
The Politics of Bacteria
The Politics of Bacteria, 1992
Cibachrome, 250 x 1200 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur, gift George Reinhart and the artist
1996-002-002
© Lewis Baltz Trust
1945 (Newport Beach, US) – 2014 (Paris, FR)
In 1975, the exhibition New Topographics—A Man Altered Landscape, which featured artists such as Robert Adams, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Frank Gohlke, offered a new photographic perspective on the American landscape. One of the most central prota-gonists of this time was Lewis Baltz, whose work is now being rediscovered in major exhibitions through-out Europe and the United States. His dry, analytical approach to the fragile crossings of nature and civilization continues to influence generations of photographers. He gives the discarded, incomplete, and de-stroyed a second life, elevating them in their meaning, aesthetics, and beauty to a level on par with iconic motifs from the canon of photography.