Luca Campigotto : American Elegy

The canyons and deserts of the vast natural landscapes of the American West (Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, Death Valley, Canyonlands, Canyon de Chelly, etc.) and the coal-mining ghost towns of California and Wyoming. A town in Montana whose brick architecture is reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s paintings. Liquor stores, Idaho’s large auto cemeteries, the Bronx and the other industrial fringes of New York City. The sense of distance and the solitude of the wild frontier and the urban periphery alternate between dazzling daytime lights and mysterious nocturnes.

This lush book presents 70 colour photographs imbued with clarity and nostalgia, accompanied by short poetic notes as travel counterpoints. A journey on the thread of personal memories which in turn echo literary and cinematographic works. An evocation in images and words of some American topoi, above all the timeless myth of “on the road” travelling.

The afterword by Mauro Pala, professor of comparative literature, explores the ancient relationship that binds American literature to great landscape photography.

Text in English and Italian.