Candlestick Point

Label Text Lewis Baltz was a founding member of the New Topographics movement. Beginning in the 1970s, this group recorded human intervention in the natural world in a detached, documentary style that differed from the romanticized, picturesque landscape images common among earlier generations of photographers. “The ideal photographic document would appear to be without author or art,” said Baltz. Made between 1984 and 1988, these photographs are straightforward images of Candlestick Point, an area that had been a dumping ground for San Francisco residents since the early 1900s. After years of organizing by local residents, it was designated California’s first urban park in 1977. While not explicitly intended to promote an ecological message, Baltz’s images record the ongoing impact of the waste created by modern living and the carelessness with which it is often discarded.

DimensionsSheet: 8 × 10 in. (20.3 × 25.4 cm)
Image: 6 3/4 × 9 3/16 in. (17.1 × 23.3 cm)

Accession Number 1989.8.A-.FFFF

Classificationsphotograph

Inscriptionsnone

Edition9/21