The contemporary American West, in photos

See NPR's feature of Frontcountry, a new photo book by Lucas Foglia.  Chris Benderev describes the collection in his piece for NPR as "edited against" typical characterizations of the American West "in simple, iconic images: the cowboy, the miner, the farmer."  According to Foglia, "The pictures wander on purpose."

Foglia spent seven years with his camera, jumping from town to town, from New Mexico to Montana. He captures moments that distinguish the West from the rest of the country, as well as moments that could have happened anywhere in America. And then he mixes them all together.

The result is a collage of life and landscape — kids playing, a carved-out copper mine, a newborn calf, soccer practice, teens drinking in a snowbank.

But Wendy from Montana wrote in her comment on the story:

This doesn't look like it "wanders" very far. No college towns? No theatre events? No extreme skiing? No sushi in the park? No "March Against Monsanto"? No trivia night? Whitewater kayaking? No bike lanes? No no-profit worker on two phone lines at once, at her desk in front of two monitors? We are here. We are passionate, thinking people, engaged with the 21st century and we are the west also. -Wendy, from Montana (I do LOVE this picture of the woman running the hose over her head!)