The journeys of eighteen photographers, for whom the American road was muse, are tracked in The Open Road. Shown in chronological order, from the 1950s to today, the photographs featured show America’s changing landscape from its highways and byways; they show the evolution of American car culture and reflect the artists’ explorations of place, time, and self. Highlights include Robert Frank’s black-and-white photographs from his 1955 road trip; seminal color work from William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, and Joel Sternfeld; and series from contemporary photographers Alec Soth and Swiss artist duo Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs.
The Open Road is the first exhibition to consider the American photographic road trip as a genre in and of itself.
Organized by: Aperture Foundation, New York. Curated by: David Campany and Denise Wolff. This project is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Exhibitions in the Herzfeld Center for Photography and Media Arts sponsored by: Herzfeld Foundation and Madeleine and David Lubar. Media Sponsor: 88Nine Radio Milwaukee.