Outside the limits of Los Angeles photographer John Divola introduces us to captivating standalone dwellings while leaving us to wonder who created them. In Isolated Houses, Divola shows us that the power of photography often isn’t in what is shown in the image, but what is withheld from view.

Beginning in the mid-1980s, Divola, a California native, set out on regular trips to the outer limits of LA and into the desert. It was there that he found and photographed small homes that suggest the presence of people who seek solitude.

Divola titles these pictures simply with their geographic coordinates, turning the images into both documents of his findings and a form land survey. Within this framework, he draws deeply from the old traditions of landscape photography in the American West. In Isolated Houses, rather than document the natural land, Divola provides evidence of those who have chosen to embrace remoteness in modern society.