Luca Campigotto: American Elegy

The American road mythos from the vast landscapes of the West to the industrial fringes of New York City

This luscious volume presents 70 color photographs of America imbued with both clarity and nostalgia. Italian photographer Luca Campigotto (born 1962) takes us from the canyons, deserts and coal-mining ghost towns of the American West to Idaho’s large auto cemeteries, to the Bronx and other industrial fringes of New York City, to a town in Montana whose brick architecture is reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s paintings. The solitude of the wild frontier and the distance of the urban periphery alternate between dazzling daytime lights and mysterious nocturnes. Each photo is accompanied by short poetic notes—a journey of personal memories which echo literary and cinematographic works—serving as an evocation of some American topoi, above all, the timeless myth of “on the road” traveling. The afterword by Mauro Pala, a professor of comparative literature, explores the ancient relationship that binds American literature to great landscape photography.