West: 2016

West. Public Diary is a photography book by Gianluca Vassallo , born from an artist residency in New York, and takes the form of a visual and narrative diary of the present.

The volume brings together 56 photographs and 56 short stories, composing an intimate and political journey through contemporary Western society, observed through bodies, gazes, and chance encounters. The images, direct and unadorned, convey the human presence as a measure of space and landscape, allowing a fragile, everyday, and unspectacular beauty to emerge.

Conceived as a valuable editorial object, Occidente. Diario Pubblico combines photography and writing in a rapid rhythm, where each image interacts with the text without ever illustrating it. A book that is read and viewed like a public notebook: personal in its gaze, collective in its meaning.

An ideal work for those who collect contemporary photography, artist books, and visual research that questions the present.

Photographs and texts by Gianluca Vassallo, Curatorial text by Roberto Cremascoli, Graphic design by Artemio Croatto