PHOTOGRAPHY : ALEX BEX
EDITORIAL : LIFE FRAMER, PICTURA GALLERY & ALEX BEX

I document my evolving relationship with masculinity to encourage meaningful conversations about its changing role.

We’re delighted to announce Alex Bex as the 3rd Prize photographer of our Edition XI Series Award with his series Memories of Dust, judged by Lisa Woodward and Mia Dalglish, co-curators at Pictura Gallery in Bloomington, IN.

Cowboys have long been an archetypal figure in North American culture. In his series, Memories of Dust, Alex Bex is looking at a well-trodden subject for a more nuanced perspective. His most captivating images transcend the genre and talk about something more expansive- the gamut of masculine identity. The pearl in these images is the vulnerability Bex reveals in his subjects.

In one photograph, a young man leans against his horse, giving it his weight. His face tucked into the horse’s neck and arm bent around its chest suggests a tentative embrace. It’s a subtle but tender gesture of surrender to the creature in front of him. In another image, a young cowboy nervously bites his fingers before entering the rodeo ring. The portrait is unguarded; the viewer is pressed close enough to study his downy curls, his freckles, and delicate skin.

Bex observes subtle details in the lives of his subjects, such as a bed made up with horse-themed bedding. Everything about the image is soft, intimate, quiet. Who sleeps there? It’s either a man, for whom it is okay to dearly love horses, or a boy, growing up inside of cowboy culture and within its dreams.

Bex’s visual language is strongly cinematic. In one of his most arresting images, the silhouette of man fills an open entryway between sliding doors. He is a modern incarnation of “the stranger,” whose first appearance in a western film is often made through swinging saloon doors. His shadow creeps in ahead of him, menacing. His body is edged in delicate golden light, but his face remains masked by shadow. In the figure of this man could reside many different men, with many different intentions. Is he an ICE agent at the door, someone looking for refuge, or perhaps just a person at the end of a long day’s work?

We may look at the stranger a little differently having been primed by Bex’s previous portraits, to search out a softer read on a person. A good portrait does exactly this- it allows us to sit with the subject, and consider them in all their complexities.

Memories of Dust is a post-documentary photographic project that explores the codes of traditional masculinity in my home state of Texas. I question the figure of the cowboy, a male icon shaped by the media, and its place within an American society undergoing profound transformation.

At a time when masculinist discourse and so-called “traditional” values are regaining influence, examining classic male representations has become essential. My work highlights the impact of images on the construction of gender stereotypes. I revisit the visual language of the Western to reveal the contradictions and limitations of the archetypal cowboy.

As a major symbol of North America, the cowboy has left a lasting mark on the Western ideal of manhood through visual media. The hero of my childhood is still glorified in popular culture as the embodiment of the “real man”: the strong silent type, lonesome, self-reliant, and impervious to emotion.

By traveling across Texas and immersing myself in the daily lives of the ranching community, I seek to move beyond this fixed image. My photographs focus on ordinary gestures and moments of vulnerability among men that are rarely shown, offering a more honest and nuanced perspective on the contemporary rancher.

Through my project, I observe how the male traits that shaped me are transformed through each image I create. By revisiting the narrative of an influential icon, I document my evolving relationship with masculinity to encourage meaningful conversations about its changing role.

– Alex Bex

All images © Alex Bex
Discover more on Instagram and his website