Places I Slept is a series that documents life on the American road. From the perspective of a lone female traveling between coasts by car, photographs and extended journal entries reveal both wonderment and a disconnect from American culture after returning from several months abroad. Isolated environments are portrayed as both familiar and foreign.

From the Intro:

The first few nights I slept alone in a car were rough. It took some time to find comfort; like softening the edges of a cupholder with a yoga mat, wiggling out of my underwire bra and getting back into it while laying nearly flat; and managing to get the interior privacy fabric to stay up through the night without collapsing down onto my face while I slept. Every noise woke me, as I hadn’t fully penned my set of safety guidelines for sleeping in public spaces.

These photos are proof of a journey and their pairing with text calls into question gender norms in a society that instills women with the fear of being alone on the open road— the very same muse which has been wildly romanticized for decades by the male gaze.

EXCERPT

I spent two or three nights at an international hostel where free hair dye was provided in the ladies’ shower room. Lodging was discounted ten dollars a night for anyone who chipped in with daily chores. I swept up leaves and dirt around the parking lot that looked like a cross between an automotive museum and a junkyard. Expired pastries from Whole Foods were set out for free-gan dining.

I gave a guy named Tony a ride up to Taos with his bicycle. He was a former pro- wrestler who gave up a world of material success in exchange for a minimalist lifestyle. Once addicted to opioids to manage the pain of his former career, Tony found marijuana to be the most successful way of breaking the addiction. He woofed across the country, working in Hawaii and on a pot farm in the Pacific Northwest which he spoke of as a Utopian existence. He planned to move to Portugal soon to volunteer with another hostel. 

He says, “I’ve been able to manage living on just $500 in cash a year.”

A 6×9 limited edition, hand-stitched chapbook contains 32 pages with 23 images (+ 4 additional for the cover and inside flaps).

To read more about this project, click here for an in-depth interview at HumbleArts.