AA-2026-064B88
On the image
A wide valley floor spreads beneath tall cypress trees planted in deliberate rows, the kind of windbreak scheme that 1950s agriculture favored to hold back soil and mark property lines with something that looked intentional and modern. In the middle distance, a patchwork of green fields and irrigation canals cuts the valley into neat rectangles, each one somebody's calculation about water, drainage, and yield. Beyond that a city sprawls against distant mountains with the particular density and geometry of post-war development—close enough to have filled in the open spaces, far enough that you can see the whole enterprise at once and understand it was built on the assumption that this valley would feed it forever. The photograph has the saturated color of a 1950s color slide, the kind a civic booster or agricultural magazine would commission to show what modern irrigation and planning had accomplished: proof that the valley was productive, rational, and fully subordinate to human intent. Not a single element in the scene occurred by accident.
Visually related — by likeness
Valley landscape with irrigation channels and distant city, 1950s. 1950–1959. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-064B88. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/valley-landscape-with-irrigation-channels-and-distant-city-1950s.
@misc{aaAA2026064B88,
title = {Valley landscape with irrigation channels and distant city, 1950s},
year = {1950–1959},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-064B88},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/valley-landscape-with-irrigation-channels-and-distant-city-1950s}
}TY - ART TI - Valley landscape with irrigation channels and distant city, 1950s PY - 1950–1959 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-064B88 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/valley-landscape-with-irrigation-channels-and-distant-city-1950s ER -
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