Alex Bex
France - United States
Alex Bex (b. 1993) is a French-Texan photographer based in Berlin. His work explores the impact of popular visual media on traditional representations, particularly focusing on masculinity and its social construction. Through his photography, he engages with the cultural narratives he was brought up with to study and challenge them.
As a self-taught photographer, Alex is frequently involved in the film and music industries for press purposes. These experiences have deepened his interest in the power and complexities of media representation within his work.
Most recently, his long-term project ‘Memories of Dust’ won the Booooooom Photo Awards for the Portrait category, and was selected as a finalist in the Documentary category of the 2025 Sony World Photography Awards.
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Memories of Dust
Memories of Dust is a post-documentary project exploring traditional masculinity in my home state
of Texas. In this project, I examine the cowboy, an important male figure shaped by popular culture, and its place in a fast-
changing society. In a time of growing tensions between traditional values and modern viewpoints of identity, it is necessary to challenge classic representations of masculinity and highlight the impact of visual media on gender constructions. The cowboy remains a longstanding symbol of North America. This hero of my childhood is still romanticized by popular culture as the real man“: the strong silent type, lonesome, self-reliant, and emotionally distant. The myth of the cowboy has played a major part in defining an ideal of Western manhood.
As I travel across Texas and spend time on ranches and at rodeos, I immerse myself in the daily life of the local ranching community. I learn about the realities, routines, and hardships of the cowboy, and compare them to the conventions of the cultural myth. By including traditional visual codes and symbols of the Western narrative in my photographs, I play with common representations of the archetypal cowboy and explore the boundaries of this male stereotype.
Through my project, I reflect on the romanticized male traits that shaped me and question the concept of manhood I grew up with. By revisiting the narrative of an influential icon, I document my evolving relationship with masculinity to encourage meaningful conversations about its changing role.
