Beyond the myth of the West: in Milan, an exhibition rewrites the American imaginary through photography
- Editorial Staff
- Mar 27
- 3 min read
At 10·Corso·Como, the exhibition The New American West: Photography in Conversation brings into dialogue great masters of photography and contemporary perspectives, showing how the myth of the West has been constructed, transformed, and continuously reinvented over time.
The American West has never been just a place. It is an image, an idea, a collective projection that runs through the history of photography and visual culture. Vast open spaces, solitude, the promise of freedom, elements that over time have evolved into a complex narrative shaped as much by fascination as by contradiction.
With The New American West: Photography in Conversation, on view from March 11 to April 7, 2026 at 10·Corso·Como, this imagery is questioned and reconstructed through nearly a century of photography. Part of the OFF Circuit of MIA Photo Fair BNP Paribas 2026, the exhibition weaves together historical and contemporary works to show how the West continues to exist not only as a geography, but as a mental and cultural space.
The project is curated by Alessio de’ Navasques, Howard Greenberg and Carrie Scott, three figures with distinct yet complementary backgrounds. De’ Navasques, curator of the gallery’s cultural program, brings a perspective attentive to the relationship between fashion and visual arts; Greenberg, one of the leading experts in 20th-century photography, contributes a selection of historically significant works; Scott, an art historian and founder of the platform Seen.art, completes the dialogue with a contemporary and accessible approach.
From frontier to inner landscape
The images of the great 20th-century masters lay the foundations of the myth. The monumental landscapes of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston present an almost metaphysical West, suspended between nature and abstraction.
But already in the works of Paul Strand and Esther Bubley, the frontier takes on a new form: no longer just unspoiled nature, but a lived space, shaped by communities and stories.
As the decades pass, the image transforms once again. In the works of Lee Friedlander and Joel Meyerowitz, the landscape loses its epic dimension and becomes fragment, surface, light. The West ceases to be a promise and becomes observation, a measure of time, a daily experience.
The West as a human stage
In parallel, the narrative shifts from vast landscapes to human bodies. The photographs of Diane Arbus and Mary Ellen Mark reveal an intimate, often marginal dimension, far removed from heroic narratives.
Here, the West is no longer myth, but presence: communities, identities, fragility. The images become tools for observing what remains at the margins of official representation, transforming the frontier into a human and cultural space.
Alongside these visions, cinematic and artistic references also emerge: the gaze of Wim Wenders, the countercultural voice of Allen Ginsberg, and the suspended atmospheres that run through the visual imagination of the 20th century. The West thus becomes a constellation of gazes rather than a linear narrative.
Two contemporary gazes on the same territory
At the heart of the exhibition lies the dialogue between Maryam Eisler and Alexei Riboud, who undertook a journey in 2024 across Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.
The two artists traveled through the same places without comparing notes, producing radically different visions. The result is a dual narrative that highlights how the same landscape can generate opposing images.
Eisler constructs cinematic images, dense with emotional and psychological tension. Riboud, by contrast, adopts a more essential and contemplative gaze, in which architecture and space become elements of visual reflection.
Among ghost towns, mechanical ruins, and interiors suspended in time, the contemporary West emerges as a mental rather than geographical space. A place where memory, imagination, and reality continuously overlap.
Visitor Information
Location: 10·Corso·Como (Corso Como 10, 20154 Milan)
Dates: March 11 - April 7, 2026
Opening hours: everyday: 10:30 AM - 7:30 PM
Admission: free entry
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