Roadside America

These images are part of an ongoing project.  They were all created while traveling across the continental United States with a Polaroid 600 camera.  I tend to use this format for its simplicity and immediacy.  Often, the Polaroid original is used as a souvenir that can be mailed to friends, family, or patrons as a unique post card.   Images are also scanned to later output as Giclee prints for use in exhibitions.  These prints retain an amazing amount of detail and are generally printed in one of four sizes: 11x11, 16x16, 32x32, or 44x44.  During exhibition, original Polaroid prints (which have traveled through the mail) can be seen in context with those unmarked, scanned, and printed versions.  For myself, the marks made upon the Polaroid as it travels through the mail system speak to the affects of physical travel as well as to the psychological marks that travels and experiences leave upon our lives.   The unique color and feeling of the Polaroid print is also important, as the subject matter I tend towards is reminiscent of a bygone era.  This format of film allows me to capture the world in a way similar to the representation of reality by Technicolor.  Colors are saturated and appear to almost be dreamlike at times.  It seems only fitting that these somewhat nostalgic and romantic, yet sometimes biting, views of the American landscape and roadside attraction are represented in this manner.

During gallery installation, video and sound works exemplify the experience allowing the viewer to pass through a psychological space of travel while hearing stories from the road and/or sound bytes from actual destination and stopping points.