On the Road
A visual tribute to the novel by American writer Jack Kerouac's "On the Road"
In 1967 while living in San Francisco I pointed my camera lens toward the pavement below my feet and recorded a small series of graphic images on film that later would become the ongoing series of On the Road. Other titles had entered my mind such as On the Street Where You Live and so on but being the admirer of Kerouac's novels and having been greatly influenced by the post war Beat Generation's aesthetic in music, art and poetry I found it relevant to stick to the inspired Kerouac title. Since that series began I became a subconscious follower of information imprinted on the urban roadways. The urban environment is ordered into geometric patterns that keep us confined and orderly and so the series continues along the American highways and on to the roadways of England, France and Belgium in a discovery of varied directions.
About 10 years ago I came across a series of images recorded on Polaroid film in 1970 by the photographer Walker Evans. He to seemed to gain some inspiration by the arrow markings on the pavements of his streets. After the chance encounter of his images I felt some justification for the images I was producing. I would have loved to have had a sit down with him over a few beers and a chat about his affection for the road marks. Our lives are filled with lost opportunities.
In 1967 while living in San Francisco I pointed my camera lens toward the pavement below my feet and recorded a small series of graphic images on film that later would become the ongoing series of On the Road. Other titles had entered my mind such as On the Street Where You Live and so on but being the admirer of Kerouac's novels and having been greatly influenced by the post war Beat Generation's aesthetic in music, art and poetry I found it relevant to stick to the inspired Kerouac title. Since that series began I became a subconscious follower of information imprinted on the urban roadways. The urban environment is ordered into geometric patterns that keep us confined and orderly and so the series continues along the American highways and on to the roadways of England, France and Belgium in a discovery of varied directions.
About 10 years ago I came across a series of images recorded on Polaroid film in 1970 by the photographer Walker Evans. He to seemed to gain some inspiration by the arrow markings on the pavements of his streets. After the chance encounter of his images I felt some justification for the images I was producing. I would have loved to have had a sit down with him over a few beers and a chat about his affection for the road marks. Our lives are filled with lost opportunities.
