Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty was built by pushing 6,650 tons of earth and basalt into the Great Salt Lake, forming a spiral 1,500 feet long and 15 feet wide. As massive as the earthwork is, however, it defers to its surroundings. These photographs, taken by the artist soon after the work’s completion in 1970, display the environmental entanglement that he was hoping to achieve. Explore the September 2023 Issue Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read. View More Smithson’s Jetty has no edge, no frame. Water interpenetrates it, a gleaming, mercurial counter-spiral spooling into its open rockwork. The work’s appearance is infinitely sensitive to the dynamic conditions of the lake: As the level and salinity of the water change, so too does the jetty. Salt crystals play a special role in this collaboration. A student of crystallography, Smithson knew that the rocks would take on a ghostly patina of salt. As he liked to point out, salt crystals themselves can grow in a spiraling pattern; he wrote that the …