The American photographer Stephen Shore once declared, “Our country is made for long trips.”
While the myth of the Western frontier had long engaged artists, and photographers including Walker Evans and Edward Weston immortalized their travels through the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, the American road trip gained new prominence in literature, music, movies, and photography after World War II. As the growth of the Interstate Highway System and the wider availability of automobiles made it easier to cross the country’s expanse, more photographers embarked on trips to create work about America itself or better understand their place in it. The road trip remains an enduring symbol in American culture, suggesting possibility, discovery, and escape—a place to get lost and find yourself in the process.
The Open Road explores the photographic road trip as a genre and America as an imaginative resource, presenting the stories of photographers for whom the American road was muse. More than 100 images spanning the 1950s to today suggest how photographers have discovered in the specific details of America’s vastness a means to reflect on place, time, and self.
Featured Artists
- Robert Frank
- Inge Morath
- Ed Ruscha
- Garry Winogrand
- Lee Friedlander
- William Eggleston
- Joel Meyerowitz
- Stephen Shore
- Victor Burgin
- Bernard Plossu
- Shinya Fujiwara
- Eli Reed
- Joel Sternfeld
- Todd Hido
- Alec Soth
- Ryan McGinley
- Justine Kurland
- Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs
Justine Kurland, Claire, 8th Ward, 2012, Archival pigment print, © Justine Kurland, courtesy Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery, New York
Joel Meyerowitz, Los Angeles River, California, 1967, Archival pigment print, © Joel Meyerowitz, courtesy of the artist and Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York
Ed Ruscha, Knox Less, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1962, Gelatin-silver print, Photo courtesy of the artist
Stephen Shore, West Third Street, Parkersburg, West Virginia, May 16, 1974, Chromogenic color print, © Stephen Shore, 303 Gallery, New York
Justine Kurland, Playing with Trains While Waiting for Trains, 2008, Archival pigment print, © Justine Kurland, courtesy Mitchell-Innes & Nash Gallery, New York
Bernard Plossu, New Mexico, Near Española, 1979, Gelatin-silver print, Courtesy the artist and Eaton Fine Art, West Palm Beach, Florida
William Eggleston, Untitled, from the portfolio Los Alamos, 1965-74, Dye-transfer print, © Eggleston Artist Trust, courtesy Cheim & Read, New York, and David Zwirner Gallery, New York
Inge Morath, Hitchhikers on the Road from Albuquerque to Gallup, New Mexico, 1960, Gelatin-silver print, © Inge Morath/Magnum Photos
Stephen Shore, U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973, Chromogenic color print, © Stephen Shore, 303 Gallery, New York
William Eggleston, Untitled, from the portfolio Los Alamos, 1965-74, Dye-transfer print, © Eggleston Artist Trust, courtesy Cheim & Read, New York, and David Zwirner Gallery, New York
Ed Ruscha, Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas, 1962, Gelatin-silver print, Photo courtesy the artist
Press
Credit
The Blanton presentation is organized by Claire Howard, Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Blanton Museum of Art.
Exhibition organized by Aperture Foundation, New York, David Campany and Denise Wolff, curators. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Support for this exhibition at the Blanton is provided by Chase and J.P. Morgan.