The history of photography is full of great examples of photographers that left the comfort of home to seek out the wider world with their camera tucked under their arm. In the United States the bedrock was set by Walker Evans’ book American Photographs, which the young Robert Frank studied while embarking on what became The Americans. However, for every great outing by a keen eyed native (Evans) or enchanted foreigner (Frank), there are multitudes of photographers who came back with nothing but failures. I know that I have stories of being on both ends of this spectrum.

The structure of my presentation is broken into these sections:
Exploration and Photography
The Artist on the Road in the USA
The Hero’s Journey
Rewards
Pitfalls

In addition to my presentation I’ve asked a couple of friends to speak about recent bodies of work they have made while traveling.

Yola Monakhov-Stockton spoke about work she’s been making in Hawai’i, photographing family and working with an archive she found there. She also touches upon how her sense of what constitutes home was complicated by her emigration from Russia when she was young. Later in the talk she dives into questions surrounding ethical considerations when photographing away from home. Please visit Yola’s website yolamonakhov.com

Nat Ward spoke about his experience working on a long-term project in Florida that wound up not working out, and how letting go of preconceived notions of what to expect from where you are traveling can allow the place to reveal itself. Nat has a recently published book, Big Throat, of photographs and writing from an existential experience on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge in New Mexico. Information about the book can be seen on the publisher’s website: Big Throat. Please visit Nat’s website nat-ward.com

Patrice Helmar shared some quotes that gave her guidance in the past when thinking about traveling away from home to photograph. She spoke about class issues that are tied up with who gets to travel and where, and how her inherent curiosity about people contributes to strangers opening up their homes to her. Some of these portraits can be found on the Down by Law section of her site. Please visit Patrice’s website patricehelmar.com

At the end of the call Tony Chirinos spoke about his project involving fighting roosters, Cocks, which he made over a seven year period on the Colombian island of San Andrés. You can see the work on his website: Tony Chirinos