Lewis Baltz

Lewis Baltz, with his iconic, minimalist photos of suburban landscape, is considered the founder of the New Topographics movement. Reproduced for the first time, his earliest portfolio, The Tract Houses (1971), and his preliminary forays into a minimal aesthetic, The Prototype Works (1967-1976), illuminate Baltz's drive to capture the reality of a sprawling Western ecology gone wild. Together with The New Industrial Parks near Irvine, California, this trilogy reveals the indelible importance of Baltz in the development of contemporary photography. "Baltz turned his camera on the virtually featureless built environment of California... He pushed his compositions to an astringent minimum," writes curator Sheryl Conkelton in an informative essay. Either available as individual publications or in a handsome cloth slipcase for all three. Includes stunning tri-tone reproductions of Baltz's magnificent prints. Co-published by RAM Publications, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Steidl Verlag, this edition is truly worthy of collectors.