Leonardo Magrelli, West of Here

At first glance the work looks like a classical photographic survey of Los Angeles, following in the footsteps of the many great photographers who worked in that city. But with a closer look, the book reveals more.

Collected from the web, edited, cropped and turned to black and white by the author, all the images are originally taken by different users around the world playing Grand Theft Auto V —a video game set in an “open world” scenario that closely resembles Los Angeles and its surroundings.

Is it possible to photograph this place? And what does it mean to do so? What light are we writing with?

While exploring the possibilities and the implications of photographing a virtual place, while reflecting on the meaning of a “collective memory” of a place that doesn’t exist, the work addresses further issues, such as the truthfulness of photography and our belief in this medium as a trace of reality.

The edition is also accompanied by two critical texts, written by Britt Salvesen, curator and head of the Photography Department at LACMA in Los Angeles, and Mirjam Kooiman, curator at the Foam Museum
in Amsterdam.