Edger, County Village, California 1984

Joe Deal made this photograph, Edger, County Village, California, with a camera and film, but what I notice is the composition, the way the planes of the house and the lawn meet, and the way that it creates a sort of flattened space. In this black and white photograph, the texture of everything from the shingles on the roof to the blades of grass in the lawn is given equal weight. Even the objects crammed in the garage can be seen clearly. Look at the way that the car mirrors the house, how it becomes another box within boxes, and how the person tending the lawn becomes another shape, neatly placed within the whole. The photograph feels both precise and a bit unsettling, a reminder that everything is designed, right down to the placement of the last blade of grass. It reminds me a bit of Ed Ruscha's photographs of buildings, in that it seems to ask a question about how we shape the world around us, and in doing so, shape ourselves.