Liz Deschenes’ work questions the fine line between reality and perception. This otherworldly landscape from her 1999 series Below Sea Level was shot in eastern California at Death Valley, located in the Mojave Desert. This desolate, austere terrain exists at an elevation, as the title implies, that is 170 feet below sea level. It is located near Badwater Basin, the lowest point in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Typically one of the hottest places on earth during the summer, Deschenes braved the treacherous desert environment to make a landscape that, at first glance, looks more like the ocean floor than desiccated earth. In reality, her images of salt flats, canyons, and other inhospitable environments document some of the most arid, unlivable locations on the planet.
A related photograph from this series is in the collects ion of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2002.247). Deschenes’ work is in the collects ions of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other institutions.
