The New American West:

Photography in Conversation

Selling Exhibition: 13–26 November 2025 • Paris

T his November, The New American West: Photography In Conversation makes its European debut at Sotheby’s Paris, coinciding with Paris Photo—the world’s leading photography fair. Timed to open alongside one of the medium’s most anticipated global moments, the exhibition arrives with renewed urgency, inviting a deeper, more critical reflection on how the mythos of the American West has evolved—and how it continues to shape our collective imagination today.

Co-curated by gallerist Howard Greenberg and art historian Carrie Scott, it interrogates the myths, realities, and complexities of the region, weaving together the work of iconic photographers like Mary Ellen Mark and Edward Weston, with the cutting-edge visions of Maryam Eisler and Alexei Riboud to create a conversation that stretches across generations.

The show was initially inspired by the collaborative journey of Maryam Eisler and Alexei Riboud, who traversed Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah in early 2024. Their contrasting yet complementary photographic approaches—one narrative and intimate, the other reflective and minimal—sit at the core of the project and exemplify how the same landscape can yield profoundly different artistic responses. Shooting side by side but never sharing images, they documented the same landscapes in entirely different ways, proving that photography is shaped by perspective, not just optics.

With Greenberg’s expertise, Scott’s curatorial insight, and the global platform of Sotheby’s during Paris Photo, The New American West offers a timely and thought-provoking reappraisal of one of the West —its romance, its abandonment, its reinvention—at a moment when American’s global identity is evolving.