When people think of the American West, they often picture mountain lions and bears, aspens and pines, mesas and mountains. They imagine a romanticized West. A land of wilderness and awe. A land in which inconsequential but resourceful human beings are both at war and at peace with nature. Much of the historic mythology of the American West that began with Manifest Destiny and westward expansion continues to influence Western identity and the broader perception of the West today.

But over the last 50 years people have transformed the West. It is now filled with developments like electrical grids and suburban homes. Its demographics have shifted too as diverse young people move in search of work and outdoor opportunities. West of Change: Landscapes in Time is a documentary series that aims to capture a snapshot of the West at its current moment in time, a moment in which change is the most significant cultural and physical phenomenon. The series is about shifting ideas of landscape, about reconciling history with the contemporary and about the friction between constructed narratives and reality. The project also considers the future of the West. A future in which physical place is both disturbed and preserved, and in which younger generations navigate a landscape dissociated from its historical underpinnings but dependent on its physical continuity.

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