The Open Road: Photography and the American Roadtrip Hardcover – September 1, 2014

Over the years I have accumulated a fair number of photography books. THE OPEN ROAD is already one of my favorites, and it surely will be one of those that I return to most often.The bulk of the book consists of photographs selected from road trip portfolios or books by eighteen different photographers. Many of the photographs are manifestly "open road" photographs, in the sense that they feature road vistas or scenes; some bear the clear indicia of having been taken from inside an automobile. But whether or not obviously an "open road" photograph, all were taken during an American road trip (some, for example, are motel room interiors).The first of the featured photographers is Robert Frank. The seven photographs of his are from his now classic book of 1959, "The Americans", which sported an introduction by the archetypal "open roader" Jack Kerouac. The last of the eighteen is the dual-headed TONK (the Swiss team of Taiyo Onorato and Nico Krebs), from their book "The Great Unreal", published in 2009. In between are such famous photographers -- famous in the sense that at least I was familiar with their work -- as Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston, Lee Friedlander, Joel Meyerowitz, and Joel Sternfeld. But some were new to me, and I appreciated being exposed to their work -- in particular, Jacob Holdt, Alec Soth, and Justine Kurland. (I list all eighteen photographers in a comment.)The book begins with a thirty-page, generously illustrated essay by David Campany. The purpose of that essay is to explore the cultural context leading up to Robert Frank's book. It goes back to the Rand McNally Photo-Auto Guides, launched in 1906, and discusses influential photographers of the American scene who were forerunners of Robert Frank, such as Walker Evans, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Esther Burley. Then, for each of the eighteen highlighted photographers in the main section of the book, Campany provides a one-page introduction, placing that photographer's work within, or as an extension of, the tradition of American road photography. These essays by Campany are excellent.By the way, Campany traces the phrase "the open road" to Walt Whitman's poem "Song of the Open Road", from "Leaves of Grass". Whitman and his quintessential book of American poetry undoubtedly gave the phrase its enormous and resonant currency, but I suspect that it existed before Whitman (who was, after all, an inveterate "borrower" of mid-nineteenth-century Americana). In any event, as the title for this review I have used a line from Whitman's poem, as it seems to capture much of the ethos of American road photography.The book itself is over-sized (12 x 10 inches and about 5 pounds in weight) and handsome. The prints are of the high standards that we have come to expect from Aperture. There never is more than one photograph on a single page. A few of the photographs are printed across a two-page spread, so impeccably that there are no "gutter" breaks in the image. Page numbers and photograph captions are discrete. THE OPEN ROAD would make for an ideal coffee-table book, all the more so because, unlike many coffee-table books, it would be enjoyed by almost anyone who plops on the nearby sofa.

This gorgeous book surveys a very specific subgenre of photography -- photographic series based on road trips through America. It starts off with a short history of the American road, an even shorter history than I realized. At the start of the twentieth century, the road system had fallen into disuse (over 90% of intercity roads were unpaved) because of the dominance of trains. But as the auto came into use, the road trip came into being, and almost from the start photography was a key part of the road trip. The pictures in the early part of the book are fascinating, as is the history of the American road, and the American road trip.The heart of the book, however, is the central section, which shows road trip photographs by 19 highly accomplished photographers. It tells us a little about each photographer, talks about each road trip, and then shows the pictures. Some of the photographers are giants in the field: the presentation starts with a group of photographs from Robert Frank's iconic "The Americans", proceeds through Lee Friedlander and Garry Winograd, and moves on to Ryan McGinley. Some are perhaps less well known -- at least they were to this reader -- but their work is stunning. Most of the photographers are American, but not not all of them, and a few are women. Having seen their work in this book, there are several photographers whose work I want to investigate further, especially Alec Soth and Taiyo Onorato+Nico Krebs.And the book is definitely more than the sum of its part. Earlier photographers have influenced later ones, but the overall determinant is the American road, that great fact and great metaphor. Since we retired a decade ago, my husband and I have taken many road trips, all over the U.S. I suppose that part of what we were doing was looking for America. So are the photographers whose work is shown in this book, and their visions are unforgettable.

Road trips have provided the fodder for many photographers, especially in America. The Open road offers an excellent overview of the genre and places the major names in American road photography in context, both chronological order and with the major art photography world at the time the photos were taken. So, the book works as a history of road trips, yet it is much more. The photos that chosen for the book make for an attractive and compelling photo book on their own. The introductory essays for each photographer offer a nice introduction to their photography and methodology, though I do have to agree that the typography in those essays is awful. The ornamentation (not technically ligatures, which connect two letters) on the letter s is particularly distracting. Fortunately, that distraction pales when we get a look at the photos.Obviously, no one volume can cover all the good photographer who have published compendium of road trip photos. The classic photographers are covered, like Frank, Winograd, Friedlander, Eggleston, Meyerowitz and Shore. The selection of current photographers is necessarily more a reflection David Campany's personal tastes. How could it be otherwise?The selection of images representing each photo book that he chose reflects nicely on the original source books, three of which I own. While no short selection of images can convey the breadth of the original road photo books, the ones here do reflect the tone of the originals and give enough of a sense of the photographer's work that we can choose which to pursue further.The printing is excellent. Colors look true to the films the photographers used. Black and white photos display a good tonal range. All in all, the prints are compelling. The binding is of good quality as is the printing.One feature that I love is an unofficial appendix that shows where each photographer made the original photos. There's a separate map for each photographer. This is a book that I will consult often and treasure.