Corona, California 1982

Joe Deal made this photograph, Corona, California, with gelatin silver. It looks like a close-up of scrubby plants growing in a field, with a blurry mountain ridge in the background. I imagine Joe Deal, with his camera, setting up his shot to take this photo, thinking about the light. What was he looking for? The high contrast reminds me of Jasper Johns' black and white paintings. Is he thinking about modernism? The photo feels bleak, like a film still from a post-apocalyptic movie. I wonder, is this field in Corona, California, like a metaphor for a new beginning? Like when painters try to scrape off the old stuff to discover something new? Artists are always having a conversation, a kind of ongoing exchange of ideas, and inspiring one another’s creativity across time. And photographs, like paintings, embrace ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.