He called it Spiral Jetty.

Made from black basalt rock and earth, the 1,500-foot spiral reaches out into the Great Salt Lake. But Smithson wasn’t interested in creating a monument that would remain exactly as he left it. He was fascinated by the idea that art could have a life of its own and that nature could become part of the work and, over time, change it.

And nature did exactly that.

The Great Salt Lake rose and eventually swallowed the Jetty. In 1998, the entire sculpture sat beneath roughly 16 feet of water. Then the lake began to recede. By 2002, Spiral Jetty had emerged again.

Today, the water has moved so far away that the Jetty sits more than a mile from the shoreline.

The artwork didn’t move. The landscape did.

That changing relationship between Spiral Jetty and the Great Salt Lake is exactly why documenting it over time is so fascinating.

Since 2012, Aero-Graphics has provided aerial photography of Spiral Jetty for Dia Art Foundation, capturing the site year after year. Our role is simple: photograph the Jetty as it exists at that moment so Dia can continue building a visual record of its changing condition and surroundings.

From the ground, Spiral Jetty is a remarkable piece of art.

From the air, you can see something more—the artwork, the lake, the shoreline and the landscape all telling the story together.

And that is one of the things we love about aerial imagery.

Sometimes we’re not just capturing a place. We’re capturing a moment in its history.

Spiral Jetty was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2024, more than five decades after Smithson created it. But perhaps the most interesting part of its history is that the story isn’t finished.

The lake will continue to change.

The landscape will continue to change.

And we’ll keep looking from above.

Sources: Dia Art Foundation; National Register of Historic Places.