American photographer and author Lewis Baltz first gained recognition as one of the key figures in the New Topographic Movement of the late 1970s, pioneering an approach to photography that refused to glorify industrial process, revealing instead landscapes blighted by rapid development and human detritus. The collection encompasses Baltz's career spanning from his early black-and-white Prototype Works of the late 1960s to his color projects of the early twenty-first century up to and including Aqua Alta and It's a Wonderful Life (2002). Included are original materials - negatives with printing notes, contact sheets, outtakes for images not selected as part of a final project, proof prints, and duplicate final prints - as well as installation shots, exhibition ephemera, and publications by and about Baltz.

American photographer and author Lewis Baltz first gained recognition as one of the key figures in the New Topographic Movement of the late 1970s, pioneering an approach to photography that refused to glorify industrial process, revealing instead landscapes blighted by rapid development and human detritus. Born in Newport Beach, California in 1945, Baltz became interested in photography at an early age and began photographing seriously at age 12. He poured over photography publications (early influences were Ed van der Elsken, Wright Morris and Edward Weston) and frequented camera shops, especially William R. Current's store in Laguna Beach, where the owner became his early mentor, employing him in the store at age 14. Baltz graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1969 and received his MFA from Claremont Graduate School in 1971.

54 Linear Feet (49 boxes)

Open for use by qualified researchers.