Constructed in 1926, US 50 was part of the original United States highway system and extends from California to Maryland. Our recent move from Oakland, California to Silver Spring, Maryland near Washington, DC inspired me to travel on this historic byway and document my journey. All work was shot on a Mamiya 6, a film camera that creates negatives that are six centimeters square. This camera really forces me to shoot with intention. The film stock is mostly Ektar 100, for those who are curious.
Graffiti covers a metal wall inside a target structure at the Dixie Valey Naval Training Area. The valley was acquired from local ranchers by the US Navy for electronic warfare simulation in 1995. The water table is very high in the area and many ranches in fact were beginning to experience sinkholes and subsidence.
Target structure at the Dixie Valey Naval Training Area. The valley was acquired from local ranchers by the US Navy for electronic warfare simulation in 1995. The water table is very high in the area and many ranches in fact were beginning to experience sinkholes and subsidence.
Graffiti at Sand Bench Viewing Area in Utah. The pullout features spectacular views of the San Rafael Swell, an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management, consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 60-40 million years ago.
A man jumps in the air for a photograph at the Sand Bench Viewing Area in Utah. The pullout features spectacular views of the San Rafael Swell, an area managed by the Bureau of Land Management, consists of a giant dome-shaped anticline of sandstone, shale, and limestone that was pushed up during the Paleocene Laramide Orogeny 60-40 million years ago.
Ticket booth, Blackhawk Arena, Salina, Utah.
Camp Salina, a former WWII POW camp in Salina, Utah, is the site of the worst POW massacre in United States history. American private Clarence Bertucci, immediately after beginning his guard duty around midnight, fired a .30 caliber M1917 Browning machine gun into thirty of the forty-three prisoner tents, unloading 250 rounds in about 15 seconds. Most of the German soldiers were from Erwin Rommel's Afrikakorps. Nine soldiers were killed and nineteen were wounded. Bertucci, who already had two prior court martials, concluded that he had hated Germans, so he had killed Germans. Bertucci was found to be insane by military officials and spent the rest of his life in Mason General Hospital in Brentwood, New York until his death in December 1969.
A roadside Native American statue in Salina, Utah. The statue used to be a slave holding a cup, but was rebuilt sometime between 2003 and 2004. The cup was changed to an axe, and the slave was transformed into a Native American.
The home of the Herbert Clutter family, Holcomb, Kansas. The four family members were murdered in the home in 1959 and were the subject of Truman Capote’s masterpiece “In Cold Blood.”
The home of the Herbert Clutter family, Holcomb, Kansas. The four family members were murdered in the home in 1959 and were the subject of Truman Capote’s masterpiece “In Cold Blood.”
I recently took time to reorganize some of my negative archives when I came across some portraits I took at a bull riding school in 2014. I remember my goal was to make a portrait of the students immediately following their first-ever ride on a bull. The students, to my surprise and initial disappointment, looked nonplussed. I wanted to see a modicum of vulnerability in their faces, but instead only saw pictures of teenagers in cowboy clothing. I scrapped the idea and moved on.
A second look this month, at least three years later, revealed there is an underlying tension in the images, for me at least. Whom of us as adolescents couldn't wait to grow up to be the archetype we most admired? In some of these images, I see some who easily slide into the role, and others have a long trail ahead of them.
In case you're interested, the images were shot with a Hasselblad 553ex and Tri-X film. Let me know what you think!
Cheers,
Eric
