Lewis Baltz’s “Park City” (1980) series is on view at Kimball Art Center in the exhibition Under Construction (March 8–May 26, 2024).
Baltz’s historic series comprises of 102 photographs taken from 1978 to 1979 in a then-developing section of the city.
Complementing this work will be photographs and installations by contemporary artist Rodrigo Valenzuela who, taking inspiration from Baltz‘s work, similarly captures our built landscape while also exploring issues of labor, alienation, and displacement.
“These photographs were made in the extraordinary harshness and clarity of Park City’s high-altitude light. Edges are brittle, distant objects unobscured by atmosphere, as in a vacuum. Each object stands discrete and disassociated from its surroundings.
Interiors, too, share this airlessness, suggesting claustrophobia rather than shelter. Many of these images suggest something of the quality found in photographs made during unmanned space probes.
In Baltz’s photographs essential information is often conveyed through indirection, in details or in far-distant objects. In Park City, as in many of Baltz’s earlier images, there is a continual tension between what the photographs describe and what they reveal.” – Gus Blaisdell, from the book “Park City”, Lewis Baltz, Gus Blaisdell (1980)
Image: Lewis Baltz, Park City, 1980, Element #1 from an installation of 102 gelatin silver prints.