The curiosity. I made another trip around California with the same camera and films in 2007, and then with 35mm and medium format cameras I began exploring outside of California.
Or you’ll just move around perhaps a bit differently than the time before and capture the thing from a new position, as was the case with the most recent exposure of the Sandell in Clarendon, Texas, which also includes its reflection in a foreground puddleBut while naturally interested in what may be different about a view with each new landing somewhere, or wanting to see it a bit differently than we did the time before, we simply want to see these things again, because we know them now. The image itself seemed to be a photo of a portrait of the kids, framed and hanging on a wall. It had been too long. I’d been experimenting with 8x10 Polaroid films in my Los Angeles studio and figured it might be interesting to take the big peel-apart films out on the roadI went up Highway 395, to start, which is where Lone Pine is, and began making exposures.
The girls were constantly sick, with colds and coughs so he couldn't always bring them to visit their grandmother. Lilian Sumner, Meghan Collison, Ilana Kozlov and The Shrine – Marshall Headphones For the most part, the old films held up quite well.
But the returning to familiar views, there’s something special about it, and it becomes personal. These simple American scenes; this life out there; the odds and ends, the quiet, the strange, the beautiful, and what remains; the lay of the land as it lay, and noticing it, paying it mind, and allowing yourself to be drawn to it, this is the driving force. It becomes important somehow. And he seemed to know what he wanted to point the camera at. A really special experience for me to witness him take so enthusiastically to making pictures After spending a week or so in Los Angeles, Sonny and I hit the road and headed back to TexasIt was July 13, and this time we were joined by Jon Beck and photographer Steve Reeves, who’d flown to Los Angeles from Dallas to make the trip back with us Steve and his photographer wife Erin had spent a few days in 2017 tailing me on the road for a short stretch while I was making pictures for Highway 70 snaking its way through a canyon, Utah, on the way back to Texas, July 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)I’m pleased we went up 395. I’d made pictures here and there in natural settings with smaller cameras and conventional films before that but it was on that first dedicated “photo road trip” with the old 8x10 view camera that the approach to photography that I’ve adhered to since was realized That first road trip took me around a good portion of California.
And it’s familiar now. Having established a successful career as a professional skateboarder during skateboarding's pivotal late 80s and early 90s period, Lee would go on to pursue acting in 1994, which would lead to working in film, television, and voiceover, and with such directors as Kevin Smith, Cameron Crowe, Lawrence Kasdan, and Rebecca Miller. The vast majority of the photographs in the book are one-time exposures, but where I felt something deserved another chance that didn’t quite work the first time, I’d find the location again and make a new exposure. Down from there through New Mexico and finally southeast once more on Highway 287 from Amarillo, the exit and entry point of these road trips and a favorite highway of mineUtah along Highway 70 was gorgeous. from the Memphis, TX, overpass above Highway 287, 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)Grand, Electra, TX, Highway 287, 2017 - 120 Delta 100 (6x6)Grand, Electra, TX, Highway 287, 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)Ford, Amarillo, TX, by way of Highway 287, 2017 - 4x5 filmFord, Amarillo, TX, by way of Highway 287, 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)The last time I’d been through Colorado with camera was 2009I stopped along Highway 70 to photograph a view of sparsely situated houses off in the distance dividing the highway and the mountains behind themThat stretch west I was accompanied by photographer Jon BeckAnd recently, in July, Jon was with me again, 10 years later, but now eastbound from Los AngelesAnd it was Jon who’d spotted the houses this time around I pulled off, turned around, exposed two rolls of Portra, one of Delta Beautiful overcast a decade ago, a more open sky this time around Church / Tire, Lumber Mart, CO, 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)Rafters, Rio Grande, NM, 2017 - 120 Delta 100 (6x6)Structure and overgrowth, Tucumcari, NM, 2017 - 120 Delta 100 (6x6)Same structure and overgrowth, Tucumcari, NM, 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)Ford, Tucumcari, NM, 2016 - 3.25x4.25 Fuji 3000b instant filmOld service station, Highway 395, CA, 2006/7 - 8x10 Polaroid 809Old service station; Revcon RV still present, Highway 395, CA, 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)Forgotten cafe, Highway 395, CA, 2019 - 120 Portra (6x7)*same cafe as seen from the inside in the previous journal entry*Forgotten cafe, Highway 395, CA, 2006/7 - 8x10 Polaroid 809When not entering or exiting Los Angeles through Barstow, I go through the California desert by way of Highway 62Beautiful, interesting geography, structures, peopleA bit touristy, busy in places, but ragged, strange, cinematic nonethelessUp the hill from Highway 62 and looking east, CA desert, 2018 - 35mm PortraUp the hill from Highway 62 and looking east, CA desert, 2019 - 120 Delta (6x7)Site of house fire; chair remains intact, CA desert, 2019 - 120 Delta (6x7)Highway 62 from above, CA desert, 2019 - 120 Delta (6x7)Mobile home park roofline at ground level, CA desert, 2018 - 35mm PortraMobile home park roofline at ground level, CA desert, 2019 - 120 Delta (6x7)Fence in parking lot adjacent to the Cabazon Dinosaurs, 2008/9 - 35mmSame fence in parking lot adjacent to the Cabazon Dinosaurs, 2019 - 120 Delta (6x7)South of Highway 10, in Cabazon, lay a few interesting stretches of rural road, some houses here and there, abandoned farms and trailers.
His was some of the first photography I’d seen that uniquely resonated with me)With multiple formats and both color and black-and-white films I’ve accumulated a good handful of photos of these locations from various periods during that time that I plan to eventually publish in a bookOne of the locations I photographed on that first road trip back in 2006 was a forgotten cafe just off 395In July 14, 2019, on the drive back to Texas from Los Angeles, I stopped at the old place and made new photographs. And then Seligman, tiny, and one of just a few joints sporadically dotting the long, empty stretch from Ash Fork to KingmanThe old Seligman service station lights still stand, as does the old Datsun, more than a decade later. I think I’ve mentioned this before. Documenting not only context but the now natural and accepted contrasts and contradictions that make up much of what and how we see is key for me—not being afraid of presenting reality, or, at the very least, offering an “alternative” viewAt a place like this very famous church, most folks are going to be interested in the structure itself. In 2017, the two longtime friends celebrated the company’s 25-year-anniversary. Strange, interesting, odd. But here and there I’d find an issue—light leaks, fogged film, some of the reversal sheets having shifted drastically magenta, which can happenAnd with a few of the unusable exposures being of subjects I wanted to include in the series, I would venture back out in that direction, hoping for a better second result. If nothing else, they are landmarks, reminders.