Brown Bag Lunch Lecture: Into the Sunset: Photography's Image of the American West

Into the Sunset: Photography’s Image of the American West examines how photography has pictured the idea of the American West, from 1850 to the present. For over 150 years, the image of the West has been formed and changed through a variety of photographic traditions and genres. This lecture considers the medium’s role in shaping our collective imagination of the West. It also addresses how photography has popularized ideas of the sublime landscape, Manifest Destiny, and the land of opportunity, as well as described a more complex vision of the West, addressing cultural dislocation, environmental devastation, and failed social aspirations.

Lecturer Dan Leers, (BA Lawrence University, MA Columbia University) is the Newhall Curatorial Fellow, Department of Photography, The Museum of Modern Art.