Model Home, Phillips Ranch, California 1984

Joe Deal's photograph, "Model Home, Phillips Ranch, California," captures a moment with a perspective that feels both detached and deeply observant. The stark black and white tones render a scene that is simultaneously mundane and surreal. Look at the pile of earth in the foreground. It's almost sculptural, a testament to the physicality of the land. And then the building, the house, it's lines, so clean, almost cartoonish. The van too. The shadow cast, the light reflecting on the windshield. I'm reminded of the New Topographics movement; that interest in the intersection of man and nature, the built and the unbuilt. Like Robert Adams or Lewis Baltz, there is a sense of coolness to Deal's work, a lack of drama, but also a very particular sensibility. His focus on the ordinary helps us find something truly profound in the everyday.