250 Miles & No Where To Go

 Get Right With God, HWY 63 TN 2013 ©jwl

A long time creative force in my life, and a very good friend of mine, will be leaving Knoxville shortly to take on a new chapter in his life at Auburn University. Being that he is a good part of my choice for moving back to Knoxville, I am sad, but I can't be too upset. The move will be great for him and it won't be a whole lot different from the 13 years I was in Wisconsin and he was in Baltimore/Harvard/Knoxville....

So, when Matt Hall tells me he wants to go on a drive with me to make photographs all I can think is 'Hell Yeah!'

The above and the next few images are some of the things I garnered from a 6 hour & 250+ mile drive in a huge circle in my beloved East Tennessee.....

 Get Right Cross, HWY 63 TN 2013 © jwl

These crosses are littered all over the South and are a throwback to the simpler days of trying to sway people's opinions along the open road. With LCD billboards and Facebook adds, we have forgotten (or maybe have never known) of a time when it was this simple. I like to photograph any and all of these I can find whether I am particularly 'right' or not.

 Jamboree, HWY 25W TN 2013 ©jwl

There is a great deal of pre-fab American living going on right here. It's like an Easter Egg hunt. I always have a little trouble finding the beauty among the exploitative nature of an audiences judgment, but these colors couldn't be denied my lens.

 Salem Door, HWY 63 TN 2013 ©jwl

There was a cow at this spot, sad and alone and hungry. I will probably be posting that photograph eventually. The cow and the building is why I had Matt stop the Porche (yep, artists zooming around in a zippy little 80's sports machine, that's another tale), but sometimes I feel that the second or third photographs are way more important when defining a sense of place.  

 Stop Shot (for Rachel), HWY 63 TN 2013 ©jwl

While looking through my Southeastern View book, Rachel stumbled upon a road sign that was blasted. It's an old photo of mine and I've not considered it in a long time. She mentioned that she hadn't seen a sign so blown apart as the one in the book. So when I saw this I immediately thought of her and the conservative nature of the damage done. Without that conversation on my couch, I may not have even considered this striking image. Thanks to Rachel, this one's for her.

Truck (detail), HWY 63 TN 2013 ©jwl

As Chad Pelton says, 'car & truck corners are hard to pass up'. This one's no exeption. Some old milk or bread truck, dying in the field in the American Vernacular. Meanwhile, some pretty flowers are deciding to make friends with it.

I'm excited to see what Matt came up with on this trek. I have a few more images and I also have some 35mm to process. All in all great day and fun work. Thanks for driving Matt!