Sanitary Landfill, Corona, California 1984

Joe Deal's 1984 black and white photograph, "Sanitary Landfill, Corona, California", captures the stark reality of human impact on the environment. The image depicts a vast expanse of compacted earth, crisscrossed by tire tracks, revealing a sense of emptiness and desolation. Deal's work often focused on landscapes, exploring themes of industrialization and its consequences. The image's minimalist composition, dominated by the repetitive patterns of the tire tracks, emphasizes the vast scale of human influence on the natural world, and invites the viewer to reflect on the delicate balance between progress and preservation.