CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/21/2016

'The Open Road' in the Wall Street Journal

This weekend, The Wall Street Journal reviews The Open Road: Photography and the American Road Trip at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark, drawing on the 2014 Aperture book by David Campany.

Stephen Shore, "U.S. 97, South of Klamath Falls, Oregon, July 21, 1973"

AMERICA'S FASCINATION WITH 'THE OPEN ROAD'
In a new exhibition, photos that capture the texture of postwar life on U.S. byways
By ALEXANDRA WOLFE

Photographer Stephen Shore was driving along U.S. 97 in Oregon in the early 1970s when he saw a billboard displaying a mountain scene in his side-view mirror. He pulled over to take a picture of it and loved how the advertisement and the spectacular natural landscape complemented each other. The result, with clouds bursting out from behind the billboard, perched over a rugged roadside, is one of the many vivid photos in a new exhibition, The Open Road.

Ed Ruscha, "Phillips 66, Flagstaff, Arizona" 1962

The show, open through May 30 at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark., features about 100 images. Walt Whitman’s famous poem, “Song of the Open Road,” inspired the title of the exhibition, whose 19 photographers include Garry Winogrand, William Eggleston and Ed Ruscha.

Inge Morath, "Outside Memphis, Tennessee" 1960

From shots of Mount Rushmore and the Pacific Coast Highway to glimpses of everyday life at roadside motels and pit stops, the photos highlight Americans’ long-standing fascination with the road, as a window into both the country’s cultural life—with the car window as a literal frame—and its pioneering attitude.

Justine Kurland, "Girl Tending Fire, Clam Beach County Campground" 2012

“Some of the best work in American photography has been made on American roads,” said Denise Wolff, senior editor at the Aperture Foundation. Drawing from a 2014 book by David Campany, the foundation created the show, which will next go on tour to the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Amarillo Museum of Art in Texas and the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Fla.

To read the full review, continue to The Wall Street Journal.