Alex Bex
France
Biography
Alex Bex (b. 1993) is a French-Texan photographer based in Berlin. Working within the documentary tradition, Alex investigates representations of masculinity. He explores how photography can deconstruct perceived realities while proposing alternatives to conventional role models. He photographs his subjects over extended periods, allowing him to capture genuine moments that reveal the vulnerability central to his work.
Alex’s long-term project, Memories of Dust, has been published and exhibited internationally. In 2025, the project won the Booooooom Photo Award, received the RPS Documentary Photography Award, and was named a finalist in the Documentary category of the Sony World Photography Awards, alongside other festival presentations. The series has been featured in major photography and art media, including Réponses Photo, Fisheye Magazine, and It’s Nice That. The project’s exhibition journey includes Alex’s first solo show, “Look Again,” at Gaby Vera Fine Arts in Madrid, as part of the PHotoESPAÑA Circuit.
Project
“Memories of Dust” by Alex Bex is a long-term documentary photography project that revisits the myth and reality of traditional masculinity in the photographer’s home state of Texas, with the figure of the cowboy as its central symbol. Bex — a French-Texan artist living in Berlin — travels across ranches, rodeos and rural communities to observe how the iconic image of the cowboy, shaped by Western film and popular media, continues to influence ideas about what it means to be a “real man” today.
Rather than merely romanticising this legendary figure, ""Memories of Dust"" questions and deconstructs the cultural narratives behind hyper-masculinity by documenting the daily lives, routines and interpersonal moments of real people, revealing tenderness, vulnerability and variance beneath the surface of longstanding stereotypes. The work invites viewers to reflect on how visual media, tradition and personal identity intersect to shape contemporary understandings of gender and cultural expectation.
