Special July 4 post. We are going to return to Route 66 today for some American portraits.
There’s a photography book I got as a Christmas present (or was it a birthday gift?) a few years back called “Humans of New York”. It started out as a blog, and two books followed. More here. For several years now the photographer, Brandon Stanton, has been interviewing New Yorkers and photographing them. Chris Arnade has been doing something similar on the road with a focus on those in the “back row” in America. He does powerful work. A lot of what he does is published in the Guardian. Here is a sample.
On my drives on America’s back roads and other roads less travelled I, too, have tried as much as I can to meet everyday people and photograph them when they permit me to do so. Chatting people up in the diner – that sort of thing. That was especially the case on Route 66.
I have been asked many times what I liked the most about the Route 66 drive. There have been many superlatives but I have to say that the true high point has been meeting people and getting their stories.
I saw an article the other day about how a good cure for our current feelings of division and discontent in the US is to get in the car and drive. Out on the roads between the coasts our shared home “brims with random loveliness”. For me it’s the people that contribute greatly to that loveliness. It’s about speaking with them and getting to know them without preconceived ideas and with an open mind and heart (in places very different from where I live). We have much in common, and I would like to think that there is more that unites us than divides us.
I digress, as I often do in these posts.
For those of you familiar with the Route 66 blogs perhaps you may recognize some of these people in this set. They are the humans of Route 66. With a few exceptions (such as at the Pacific Ocean towards the end of this set) these are all people with whom I spoke. There were only a few places on the trip where people were not that welcoming. Otherwise, the friendliness and hospitality were remarkable. Sometimes they would pull over to talk to me – see the three of four pics in this set of people in their cars!
With the exception of the photos more in the nature of street photography (again, such as the beach shots in Southern California) I always asked permission to take the photo.
During all my Route 66 drives from Plainfield, IL, on the outskirts of Chicago, to the western terminus of Route 66 in Santa Monica, I was only turned down twice (in Albuquerque NM and Barstow CA) which is pretty amazing.
Here are just a few of the backstories:
-Meet a member of the family who restored the old Opera House in Plainfield, IL; they own and operate the restaurant there – we started talking when I stopped to ask for directions on my walkabout there
-Meet Dan at the counter of the Polk-a-Dot Drive-In in Braidwood IL. It was a slow day, and he came outside to check out my TT. He said he doesn’t see too many around those parts. He got that right.
-There’s a photo from lunch In Atlanta, IL at the Palms Grill Café (opened on Route 66 in 1934) – one of so many priceless meal stops. I think just about everyone there was talking with me.
-Meet the incredibly knowledgeable guide at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, IL
-That’s Carl behind the counter in a picture I took at Mule Trading Post in Rolla MO – he and his wife Zelda own the place.
-The fellow with the dangling cigarette is the owner of the Gay Parita gas station at Paris Junction, MO. It is the best. The grand prize winner of all the old gas stations and garages along the trip. He saw me pull up and taking pictures from outside the low fence and came out of his house next to the station and opened for me. He gave me a private tour. Outstanding.
-At Clanton’s, in Vinita OK, said to be the oldest continually owned family restaurant on Route 66 in the state of Oklahoma, that’s co-owner Dennis Patrick with one of the employees. He runs the place with his wife (and Clanton family member) Melissa Clanton-Patrick. Another outstanding meal. Chicken fried steak, if I recall correctly. Clanton’s was in an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.
-Meet the team at the Box Car BBQ in Sapulpa, OK
-Meet Don, the publisher of the local paper in Davenport, OK. He saw me while I was shooting in Davenport and came out to talk to me. The photo was taken in the office of the paper. Great guy.
-The elderly couple in the very next photo own the Mohawk Lodge Trading Post in Clinton, OK. They have been married 64 years! She is part Comanche and Cherokee.
-In Shamrock, TX, in the Texas Panhandle, meet Brenda who runs the gift shop and little museum in the former cafe at the restored art deco Tower Station there – it is a beauty. Elvis ate there.
-Also in Shamrock I had lunch at Big Vern’s. This place went on my Top Ten list of lunch stops. Big Vern himself was there; he didn’t seem to mind when I asked if I could take his picture.
-There are several photos in this set taken when I stopped for dinner at the famous Big Texan restaurant in Amarillo.
-In Midway, TX, meet Fran – she owns an antiques shop (also with a lot of Route 66 merchandise). I bought some vintage postcards, and she pointed out the family members in some of them. Wonderful.
-The fellow in the pilot’s jacket is a volunteer at the excellent National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, NM. Meet William. 81. He is a former USAF pilot. He flew the “Big Iron”. The B-52 and B-47.
-Also in Albuquerque, the woman with the beautiful face in this set (and also in the close-up above) is a Native American vendor in Old Town from the Santo Domingo Pueblo. In Old Town as well is a shop owner with another Native American vendor.
-After I stood on the corner in Winslow Arizona I had breakfast on the corner, too; meet the team at the Sipp Shoppe. Great food and great conversation there. They are in the photo just after the one of an Amtrak conductor at the Winslow train station.
-On my way back from a side trip to Sedona I stopped at the Montezuma Castle National Monument near Camp Verde. Meet one of the park rangers who had encyclopedic knowledge of the site. I also finally stopped to try the frybread after seeing stands at so many places. It was delicious. Meet, too, the chef: his mother is Navajo and father Apache. He served in Desert Storm (Artillery).
-On my return drive to Route 66 from the Grand Canyon I pulled over at the Little Colorado River Gorge on Navajo Nation lands. Pictured at that stop is the Navajo artist from whom I purchased a handmade bracelet for my granddaughter.
-The three photos immediately following the photo of the Navajo artist were taken in the historic mining town of Oatman in the Black Mountains; this was my last Arizona stop before I drove back down from the mountains on my last stretch of Route 66 in Arizona descending to the Colorado River and California.
-The last 15 or so shots at the end in this set were all taken in California and are mostly candids. (The explanation that these were shot there is probably not needed.) They are a departure from the one-on-one approach of the preceding photos; let’s just call it an artistic decision. How does one properly capture the wondrous variety of people (and faces) out there in my home state? I decided on a greater volume and more candids than in the preceding Route 66 states.
I could write more stories and post many more pictures of all these amazing people I photographed on the drive. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did when I took them and, more importantly, got to meet and talk to so many of these folks! It is a tremendously diverse country, and Route 66 is sure proof of that.
