This set of images is from a brand new series… the newest of new really. I shot a good portion of these within the last three days, and I only just finished scanning this particular set early this afternoon. This new series is tentatively entitled, “Somewhere, America.” Here is my artist’s statement…

As a whole, the American roadside landscape has become highly gentrified.  Almost no matter where we are traveling in this country we encounter the same roadside motifs. Gas stations, parking lots, signage, fast food restaurants, rest areas, other vehicles, and maybe the occasional motel on a longer journey. It gives the feeling that although we’re always somewhere, we could be almost anywhere.

This is especially true at night where the more distant landscape which defines a particular region is obscured by darkness. Yet as banal and ordinary as these ever-present roadside motifs are, we are all still constantly recording their visual stimulus as memories, fleeting as these may be. The American roadside landscape is a visual vernacular we all understand, even if it’s unintentional, as it’s imbedded on our collective subconscious.

By grouping four different motifs together as a single piece I want to allow free association between the individual images, thus constructing a visual framework to which each viewer will add their own thoughts, feelings, and memories about the American roadside landscape. “Somewhere, America” is intended to give each viewer a unique, albeit fractured narrative which examines a major facet of our automotive driven culture.

After I made January 3^rd to January 6^th into a handmade artist book that I’m extremely proud of, I decided I would try making it available as a blurb book to increase it’s potential of being seen. Here’s a link to January 3rd to January 6th on the blurb website.

Here’s my artists statement for the series as it appears in forward of the book…

As I walked through the cold morning air on January 3rd, I snapped my first image before I left my driveway. I then set out on the road with a map, a general direction, and the intent to create a personal body of work using my 100 remaining sheets of Polaroid film. With my sister as my traveling companion for the next four days, we drove 1875 miles across the Northeastern United States and Canada. After we returned to my house on January 6th, I said goodbye to my sister and captured my final image with my Polaroid camera. The following pages present these 100 images in the sequence they were taken as an intimate document of my road trip.