Wim Wenders: Written in the West - Revisted

In preparation for shooting the film Paris, Texas in late 1983, director Wim Wenders traveled the West equipped with a 5 x 6 medium format camera searching out subjects and locations that would bring that desolate landscape to life. For several months he drove the empty highways of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California, transfixed by the vastness of a country saturated with light and color and energized by the American cowboy mystique. Even in the twentieth century, it was a landscape that had lost none of its evocative, mythic power. This collection of lush, colorful photographs magnificently displays what Wenders' practiced eye sought out: dramatic and visually arresting images, haunting vistas, and the poetic dilapidation of a country touched by man but ruled by nature. An enlightening interview with the photographer reveals the many ways that Wenders, a European traveling in a distinctly American landscape, was both moved by and bemused by what he considers the heartland of the American Dream. It is this sensibility, along with Wenders enormous photographic talents, that lend this collection a unique quality, and that allow us to experience the West in a whole new, brilliantly colorful light.

Wim Wenders was born in 1945 in Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied at the Munich Film and Television Academy and in 1975 he founded his own production company. He has directed such internationally acclaimed films as Alice in the Cities, Kings of the Road, The American Friend, Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas, The Buena Vista Social Club (nominated for an Academy Award), and, most recently, The Million Dollar Hotel.