The Wandering Three

Inspired by Robert Frank’s The Americans and the rich tradition of the American roadtrip by photographers and artists, I set off from Pittsburgh with Ren Mao and Haley Wisniewski. We spent approximately one month in a Mini Cooper traversing the nation’s landscapes and meeting people along the way. This video and these photographs, along with the unpublished thousands of images and hours of footage, are a result of this trip. Originally created in 2015.

Re-edited in 2025: My 2015 edit of these photographs were overwhelmed by the emotions I had when I first encountered these landscapes and these people. I was delighted by the postcard-like beauty of the scenes, but I had lost what made the photographs interesting: the intersection of natural beauty, the American people, and the dynamics of an exhausting roadtrip. Working on this again allowed me to focus on each photograph’s story and quality, rather than be distracted by standardized vistas.