Into the Sunset at MoMA

Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West, a new exhibition at MoMA, isn't what it appears to be. Given the title, you might think that it would be photograph after photograph of dry, arid landscape, of horizons stretching endlessly beneath endless skies, of shades of browns and beiges. But that's the brilliant thing about the curators' choices: people --- not images of the land --- dominate. People near pools, people in their cars, people dressed like movie stars (as above), people posed or candid. Even when people aren't in the picture, their things, including highways and gas stations, are. The dominant subject is a fascinating reminder that, after all, people gave us the image(s) of the West most of us possess: photography as a medium was developing as settlers began moving westward in great droves. We can't separate our ideas about the West from those who took the pictures, nor should we.

Photo: thanks