Debris, Anaheim Hills, California 1984

This photograph, Debris, Anaheim Hills, California, was made by Joe Deal, a photographer interested in the shifting landscape of the American West. It's a black and white image, but the tones are incredibly subtle. Looking closely, it feels like the world is made of a million tiny marks, each blade of grass, each scrap of trash a little fleck of dark against the pale sky. The surface of the print is smooth, which brings to my attention the texture of the landscape. We see the scrubby brush and the random scattering of debris. The photograph doesn’t hide what’s there; it just presents it in a way that makes you really look. I’m thinking of the Bechers and their typologies of industrial buildings; Deal does something similar, showing us the quiet, unsettling beauty of a landscape altered by human activity. It's a reminder that art can be found in the most unexpected places if we're willing to really see.