Lewis Baltz - San Quentin Point - 1986

I have in front of me immediate impressions of San Quentin Point : "We saw pictures of the rank vegetation characteristic of bombsites and railyards. Bedsprings or whatnot, cloth pressed into the earth as if steam-ironed, thistles spraying up regardless, nameless slimy things, rendered with the exquisiteness with which any trash can," quoth Walter Benjamin in days of yore, could and would be beautified by photography...As honesty, a dilapidated, beautiful and plentiful plant, which may be known by another name in America, flourishes especially beside English motorways, sturdy common things glinted among the bits of broken glass and broken most things at San Quentin Point. They gained stature as they multiplied...