I travel a lot, hence the name of my blog. Air travel before Covid was a nightmare. Now with everyone getting back on the travel bandwagon, pre Covid travel looks like Duck Soup. Last summer when it looked like the world was coming back to life I had to cancel a trip to Lisbon….for the second time. This time it wasn’t Covid. It was overbooked flights leaving passengers stranded.
I decided to take my (photography) show on the road. Not just a road trip but a ‘get your vehicle off the boring interstate and get off road’ road trip! Instead of long uninteresting straight roads loaded with traffic, homicidal drivers, and monotony that makes your head bob, get on a back road where the traffic is minimal and the adventures are totally unpredictable. Being a photographer I am often on the look out for not just any old scene to shoot but something that is ‘sponge-worthy’. (You may only get that if you’re a Seinfeld fan.) Hard to describe a sponge worthy scene or face, but when I see it, I know it. I get a vision in my head about the image I want. And my battle cry is “Stop the Car!”
The above photo is a ‘stop the car moment’. We were traveling in northern Louisiana with the intent of following the Mississippi River hoping to find some interesting small towns. When we passed this scene I knew immediately what I wanted. There was a story here that I wanted to capture. The scene was close to the road surrounded by beautiful live oaks, a simple mound of dirt, a cross, and a green plastic lawn chair. It was the green lawn chair I think that made it unique. I sensed immediately that it was designed by a man mourning his beloved. Not unlike the shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal in Agra, India in tribute to his late wife. But without the crowds. And the expense. This was a much smaller scale here but the grief was still palpable. My intent was to respectfully honor and portray the grief. I hope I was successful.
Leave a Reply