«The road has its own reasons and no two travelers will have the same understanding of those reasons. If indeed they come to an understanding of them at all.» —Cormac McCarthy, The Crossing
For years, I traveled on road trips throughout America taking photographs. Only recently, I made the connection between my desire for the road and the fact that my father, for the past thirty years, has traveled these same routes as a telephone pole salesman. «May the Road Rise to Meet You»
chronicles the past two years of my dad and I traveling together so I could see the road from his perspective. Additionally, I went back through his old files and notes looking for clues to the places he went in the past. In revisiting those places from his early career and photographing them, I put myself in my father’s shoes when he was the age I am now. In the process, I rediscovered my father as a man separate from his role in our family and the alternating sadness and freedom of a life spent alone on the open road.
In sequencing the project, I began with a
snapshot of my dad as a young man and end the book with him nearing retirement. By interweaving visual hints of my presence throughout the book, I have re-written history to be there with my dad all those times he was away from home. Much as a family album is an idealized record of a family’s history, this body of work pretends that we were always together.
All images © Sara Macel
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Dead Porcupine Mag, founded and curated by Raffaele Capasso and Francesco Claudio Cipolletta is a free online blog/magazine which aims to showcase talented photographers from around the world together with reporting hot topics and articles about contemporary photography. We strongly believe photography is about sharing ideas, emotions and experiences: that’s why we encourage fellow photographers and artists to contribute with their works.
