Joe Deal, born Topeka, KS 1947-died Providence, RI 2010 Search this
Medium:
gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
sheet: 13 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. (35.0 x 35.0 cm.)
Type:
Photography-Photoprint
Date:
1980
Exhibition Label:
In Back Yard, Diamond Bar, CA, brick walls converge at sharp angles to clearly define a residential lot cut out of a hillside. Joe Deal’s elevated camera focuses on a single property, while beyond the house, shingled rooftops cut off any view of the sky. Just twenty-four years before Deal arrived, the land that is now the city of Diamond Bar was untouched pasture for grazing cattle. By 1980 the land had been transformed into a sprawling network of suburban communities, strip malls, and parking lots. Deal chose to document the new suburban city because it epitomized the radical development of Southern California. His goal was to remain a neutral observer and describe without “personal interference” the landscape before his camera. His views of newly constructed homes present a brief moment in the rapid evolution of Los Angeles.
A Democracy of Images: Photographs from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2013