But first, define the mountain.

Joey Lehman Morris

California Museum of Photography

July 1 - October 30, 2010

But first, define the mountain. features two bodies of work that consider the ever-changing topography of the metropolitan Los Angeles area and the Mojave Desert. This exhibition is an extension of Joey Lehman Morris's long-standing interest in the histories of land use, photography and sculpture.

Morris's newest project, Grading California, positions the artist as an explorer of urban 'mountains'. These black and white photographs depict mounds of gravel, dirt, and sand - created and left as residual material after land is graded, or leveled, for development. His images manage to evoke the majestic mountains of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, the man-altered landscapes of Lewis Baltz and Robert Adams, and the earth-moving and entropy of land art and earth works situated throughout the western United States.

While Grading California addresses mountains-in-the-making, a second body of work involves the erasure of mountains. Over the past several years, Morris has spent a significant amount of time photographing around the Black Mountain Range in the Mojave Desert. He utilizes the cycles of waxing and waning moonlight to make photos that record geographic changes over time, and which suggest psychological or emotional reactions to landscapes.