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Preview image of work. dye transfer print,  After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, July, '79 9422

1984.13

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After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, July, '79

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Artist

Joel Sternfeld (New York City, New York, 6/30/1944 - )

Title

After a Flash Flood, Rancho Mirage, July, '79

Creation Date

1979

Century

20th century

Dimensions

15 3/16 in. x 18 15/16 in. (38.5 cm. x 48.1 cm.)

Classification

Photographs

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

dye transfer print

Credit Line

Museum Purchase

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

1984.13

Joel Sternfeld’s photograph highlights the catastrophic power of nature and its effect on human development. Part of a series called American Prospects that Sternfeld created while traveling from California to Maine in the late 1970s, this photograph embraces the irony of humans at the mercy of nature. Sternfeld is often associated with a group of landscape photographers called The New Topographics, who favored deadpan scenes of man-altered landscapes. The juxtaposition between the normality of the suburb in the top half of the image and the exposed terrain in the bottom half is both unsettling and peaceful. At first glance, attention drifts from the unscathed car on the road to the other that is half buried at the bottom of the cliff. The scene hints at the constant struggle between human development and nature, in which man’s interventions can effortlessly be wiped away.