ABOUT

Perhaps nowhere on in North America is as symbolically rich as the American West. In the harsh light of day there is a disparity between what is imagined and what exists. But as the light falls, the myths that sustain the region’s collective identity are revealed.

Part love letter and part elegy, No Fences takes the viewer off the highway and into the spaces where the myth remains—in the shadows of the mountains, deep into the pine forests, and to the last open plains along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. Inspired by 19th-century frontier poetry, Mark McLennan’s stunning photographs produced between 2020-2023 explore what has been lost and what persists in ranching communities between Southern Alberta and West Texas.

“Having lived abroad for a decade, I returned to the West to experience the promise of its expanse.  What I found was miles of barbed wire and no trespassing signs.  My camera allowed me to jump a few fences and encounter the remaining people and places that still embody the West’s mythic tradition, despite encroaching modernization and decay.” - Mark McLennan