JOE DEAL, Laguna Beach, California, 1978, 11.25x11.25" Gelatin silver print, Printed ca.1978, Signed, titled, dated on print verso.

Wonderful vintage California view by New Topographics photographer Joe Deal.

Joe Deal (1947 - 2010) received a bachelor's degree in fine arts at the Kansas City Art Institute in 1970. He received his master's degree in photography in 1974 from the University of New Mexico.

In 1975, Deal's photographs were included in the now landmark exhibition curated by William Jenkins at the George Eastman House titled, New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape. At this time, Deal was the director of exhibitions at the Eastman House, and played a significant role in designing and organizing the exhibition.

The importance and influence of the New Topographics exhibition on the practice of landscape photography brought a reexamination and restaging of the exhibition in 2009 that traveled to numerous museums venues with a new and extended accompanying catalog.

He created several major bodies of work including: the Fault Zone, Site Documents, and West and West. They explore a landscape in which man's presence contributes to our experience of place. These places are typically seen from an elevated vantage point that both abstracts and establishes the landscape depicted.

Deal received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. His photographs are held within major public and private collections including: the Museum of Modern Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Fogg Art Museum, the Los Angles County Museum, and the Center for Creative Photography.

Monographs on Deal's work include: Southern California Photographs: 1976-1986 and Between Nature and Culture: Photographs of the Getty.