View, Salt Lake City, Utah 1977

This photograph, by Joe Deal, shows a view in Salt Lake City. It's a gelatin silver print, a process that involves coating paper with light-sensitive silver halides. This method was a workhorse of 20th-century photography, valued for its tonal range and relative ease of production. What's striking here is how Deal uses this accessible medium. Instead of a grand vista, he focuses on the mundane: rooftops, utility poles, and scrubby vegetation. The black and white tones render everything with a sense of even-handedness, neither romanticizing nor condemning the scene. This is not about high art, but about the everyday landscape shaped by human presence. The photograph's meaning arises from the contrast between the natural setting and the built environment, inviting us to think about the social and economic forces that have transformed this place. In doing so, Deal elevates the ordinary to a subject worthy of contemplation.