Keywords

American West, landscape photography, diverse perspectives

Abstract

While working in the American West, Ansel Adams liked to wear a Stetson. In many ways the famed photographer and his cowboy hat are emblematic of two of the most enduring cliches of the West. Even though he was the first to protest being typecast, Adams’s near perfect photographs of untrammeled Western landscapes are often seen today as too pristine and too popular. The cowboy, moreover, has become the embodiment of the lone, laconic, male hero braving prairies and rugged mountains. Eye on the West resists both of these Western tropes. Yes, Ansel Adams makes his appearance in the text and his influence is often felt, but this book makes an important contribution to a growing body of work that presents this often-photographed geography in new and different ways. By highlighting diverse voices, it reminds readers that there is more to the West than idealized landscapes and cowboys. Moreover, it confirms what those in the West already know—that it is a complex and piebald place.

Original Publication Citation

George A. Miles, Eye on the West: Photography and the Contemporary West, The Journal of American Culture 42, issue 1 (March 2019): 79-80.