Robert Frank’s road is full of dark possibility.
Dorothea Lange’s road is forlorn.
Todd Hido’s road is fighting bleakness and despair.
Lee Friedlander’s road is full of cracks, waiting for the sudden acceleration as he hurdles straight through his ego.
Rebecca Norris-Webb’s road, you can feel the weight of the raindrops.
Stephen Shore’s road, you just hope he has his eyes on it and not lost on some tiny detail in the distance.
Garry Winogrand’s road has a feral animal about to meet its demise.
Ryan McGinley’s road has a naked person on it.
William Eggleston’s road… of course, I can’t think of anything witty to say about Eggleston.
Robert Adams roads, there are many beautiful ones to gawk at.
The open road photo is a blank slate. You can do anything with it—make it feel however you feel. Do you shoot it straight or at an angle, blurry or sharp. Bright or dark, dirt or asphalt, backroad or highway. Rain or withering heat. Do you wait for something or nothing at all.
Are you coming or going.
The open road was once romantic. But so were the starving artists. The Kerouacs escaping mundanity before life closes in and the demons catch up. And I’m sure much of America read On The Road as they got tricked into buying houses a 90-minute commute to work.
You know what’s really romantic? A middle-class artist with a shed living close to where they work.
I’m not saying there’s not the allure still. But none of these road photos above feel very optimistic anymore. But it could just be me. Is this freedom or being stuck.
Maybe as a society, we can’t escape our demons anymore. Maybe we have to turn back and face them.
(*These grid images were made high-res enough to be able to click and scroll the details. It’s an enjoyable way to view. I’m enjoying what you can do with a newsletter and a blog. It’s not a bad complement to the book form for sharing photography.)
Perception is fascinating. When I shared the car photos previously, I was curious about who would find them interesting and who not. And I still have no idea! As someone who never grew up around car culture, the everyday car commute is a strange experience. I’m not going to lie, I find the experience of people breathing on my neck during a subway commute to be far more enjoyable. Or staring at a Dr. Zizmor dermatology ad in all its copywritten brilliance while holding awkwardly to a poll. When I think about these moments, its fondly.
The day in high school when I woke up from a surprisingly wonderful nap with my head on an older lady’s shoulder. ‘You looked comfortable,’ she said. I got to pay back the favor to a kid a handful of years ago.
I went through my photographing on the subway phase in my 20s and early 30s, but then I realized my heart wasn’t it in. I can’t do it better than Bruce Davidson or Matt Weber anyway. But the main reason is that the subway is when I daydream and nap instead. I can fall asleep standing and hugging a pole with the best of them, a skill I’m very proud of.
The wealthiest people in the world.
I want to thank my wonderful mother-in-law Joycie for driving and allowing me to take these photos, as we took the kid an hour’s commute for two weeks of shark camp at the Long Island Aquarium (highly recommended). And I just have to clarify that the commute was not strange because of her, that part was quite lovely!
Note: Still spots left for a new weekend Downtown NYC workshop, Oct 19th + 20th, 2024. One of two group workshops that I put on each year.
Upcoming NYC Events and Shows
ICP Museum.
Events:
- Affordable Art Fair: Affordable Art Fair NYC Fall 2024 – Sep 25th – Sep 29th, 2024
Shows:
- MoMA: Life Dances On: Robert Frank in Dialogue and Robert Frank’s Scrapbook Footage – Sep 15, 2024–March 2025
- Gagosian: Nan Goldein: You Never Did Anything Wrong – Sep 12–Oct 19, 2024
- ICP: Selections from ICP at 50 and We Are Here: Scenes from the Streets – Sep 26, 2024–Jan 06, 2025
- The Met: Floridas: Anastasia Samoylova and Walker Evans – October 14, 2024–May 11, 2025
- New York Historical Society: Robert Caro’s The Power Broker at 50 – Sep 6, 2024–Feb 2, 2025
- Museum of the City of New York: NY at its Core: 400 Years of NYC History
- Howard Greenberg Gallery: EXTRA! EXTRA! News Photographs 1903 – 1975 – Sep 12–Nov 16, 2024
- Yancey Richardson Gallery: Mitch Epstein: Old Growth – Sep 5–Oct 19, 2024
- Edwynn Houk Gallery: Erwin Olaf: Stages – Sep 3–Oct 26, 2024
- Bronx Documentary Center: Ken Light: American Stories 1969-1995 – Oct 10–Nov 17, 2024
- Leslie Lohman Museum of Art: I’m a Thousand Different People—Every One is Real and Andrea Geyer / A Promise of Lightning – Mar 15, 2024–Jan 12, 2025
- Nowhere New York: Peter Knapp: North South East West – Sep 5–Oct 6, 2024
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Hello James –
Like the open road. Good to get out of the city. As long as there’s no road kill. 😁✌👍 LeoThiner
Thanks Leo!
James, I for one am bored to death by all things cars. And images of cars. I did grow up in car culture, Sacramento California, in the ‘60’s. I drove across the country 3 times in the early ‘70’s, CA to NY. I moved permanently to downtown Washington, DC. in 1972. I still have a car as an occasional necessity. Train/subway culture is far more interesting and romantic.
That’s how I feel as well! But I’m hardly an unbiased sample.
I really enjoyed this Glass City column and the way you linked together the work of other artists with your own explorations. Are you going or coming is such a good question. The concept of going seems at first to convey a positive feeling of choice and expectation but of course either direction can be escaping something or leaving something or someone you love. Or your very interesting comment about turning around to confront and deal with something instead of running away. And then, as you note, perceptions about these kinds of photos change over time.
I can understand why you were inspired to do the series about commuting and think about how you reacted. As a city person I shared your conclusion but I did relate to the change in feeling in your series when a car suddenly appeared to be turning or not going in the direction of the road (as in the one with the AGW construction van and others). It makes it interesting but also reminds me of why I hated commuting on the very winding Rock Creek Parkway in DC where everyone drove too fast. Most of my work commutes after that were usually walking or short in city drives thankfully.
Thank you so much Cynthia! Really appreciate these thoughts and interesting to get a sense of how people who have actually commuted by cars for much of their lives feel. In that sense, I am certainly an outsider!