Brian Chorski’s New Book Presents A Sun-Soaked Image of The West

The theme of The West, capital W, is a particularly loaded symbol, and it’s also a highly photographed place. So many iconic images and photographers (Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, Laura Wilson) have sought to capture its essence. How would you describe your version of “The West”?

It’s a fairly trope-y place, the West. I think what hopefully differentiates how I see it versus how others have documented it—incredibly well and thoroughly—is this romanticism that I have, that the 16-year-old version of me had, picturing what my utopia looked like at that time in my life, and who would I be hanging out with out there, what would we be doing? I was initially inspired by just the landscapes themselves but I think where I differ from other people that have documented that incredibly wide range of landscapes is that I’ve found most of my joy in photographing how people enjoy it. I mean, people do that too, but I think that’s what I’m drawn most to and I haven’t seen quite as much of that in in the work from the greats in the past. Ansel Adams wasn’t, to my knowledge, publishing photos of people hanging out in these places casually. I’m not by any means comparing myself to him, but just to use that as a benchmark. I love his work, I love other people’s work from the West.

What draws you to these places?

There’s obviously the novelty of going somewhere new for the first time and experiencing that with people. It’s not that I don’t see anything new anymore because the West is so vast and wide, but it matters less to me. I can go back to a place I’ve seen before and it could be just as fun. There’s still that bone in my body that craves wanting to conquer a new thing, too. The western landscape is just fucking impressive, to be honest. There are layers to it that are harder to find in other parts of the country. It’s just big and grand, there’s not as much stuff in the way, and you can play in those spaces a little bit differently.

Source: https://www.fieldmag.com/articles/brian-chorski-book-another-patch-of-sky