San Fernando Valley gathers John Divola’s eponymous photographic series, made in 1971–72 in the place where he was born. The subject is therefore both geographic and biographical: a familiar Southern California setting observed by an artist whose connection to it preceded the photographs. Published more than four decades after the work was made, the book gives this early series an autonomous form rather than absorbing it into a broad career survey.

Its approach is deliberately concentrated. Across 60 pages, a single body of work establishes the terms of the volume, allowing sustained attention to Divola’s encounter with his native landscape. That narrow scope matters: the valley is treated not as background to a life story or as a comprehensive regional history, but as a specific photographic subject shaped by proximity, memory, and the conditions of the early 1970s.

Nazraeli Press published the book in 2014 within the NZ Library project. The series was conceived to return attention to photographers active in Los Angeles during the 1970s, placing individual projects within a larger account of the city’s photographic culture. In this context, San Fernando Valley connects two historical moments—the period in which the pictures were produced and the later editorial decision to recover and present them as a distinct publication.

For collectors, the book’s importance rests on that precision of focus as much as on its documented edition details. This hardcover first edition was issued in 350 signed and numbered copies and is recorded as out of print. Those facts give the publication a clearly defined bibliographic identity, while its lasting interest lies in the compact presentation of an early, place-specific Divola series. It warrants attention as both an artist’s book centered on a formative geography and a carefully framed contribution to the publication history of 1970s Los Angeles photography.