The Western Frontier of the United States has long shaped the American identity and imagination. But how does this enduring legacy appear through the eyes of an Italian artist? Neapolitan photographer Francesco Jodice explores this question in WEST, a striking series of 18 photographs now on display at the Italian Institute of Culture in San Francisco.
The exhibition, marking its American debut, was inaugurated with an opening reception hosted by Consul General Massimo Carnelos and Alberta Lai, Director of the Italian Institute of Culture, together with their staff. Through his lens, Jodice captures both the nostalgia and the decay of the American empire—evoking symbols, landscapes, and human traces collected over the course of three journeys to the United States during the past decade.
The evening before the opening, Consul General Massimo Carnelos and his Deputy, Consul Davide Corriero, together with the Director of the IIC, welcomed the photographers Francesco Jodice and Sara Gentile, Sally Martin Katz, curator of photography at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and Matteo Balduzzi, curator of the exhibition, for a discussion on the intersections of Italian and American artistic expression in contemporary society.
The opening night featured a lively conversation between Jodice, Katz, and Balduzzi, offering insight into the artist’s exploration of the mythos and modernity of the American West. As the cultural and historical imagination of the West continues to shape the jurisdiction of the Consulate General of Italy in San Francisco, this Italian perspective on a distinctly American tradition remains both timely and essential.
