Ecologies of Photography in the American West

 

Since the 19th century, iconic photographs of western landscapes — think of Carleton Watkins’s Yosemite views — have been read as inherently environmentalist. Challenging this assumption, Ecologies of Photography in the American West examines the medium’s role in documenting, profiting from, and transforming ecosystems across its varied geographies. This book brings together a diverse range of scholars and artists to trace photography’s roots in the earth and its entanglement with resource extraction and ecological rights. Timely and expansive in scope, the volume reframes the history of the region and foregrounds photography’s complicity—as well as its potential—in shaping environmental understanding. It speaks to anyone attuned to the urgent environmental conversations defining the contemporary American West. The co-editors will address the book's relevance to the PAFA exhibition, the process of collaboration, and their hopes for the field.

 

This special program features a talk and conversation with art historians Monica Bravo and Carolin Görgen as they explore how photographs of the American West in the context of A Nation of Artists.