On the road

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=388604">Pix

from one of my current projects</a>: the boredom and loneliness of

the road warrior.<p>

 

For many, a business trip presents a change of pace and a chance to

eat out on the company's dime. For those who travel frequently, it's

another week-long stint away from families, friends, and real life.

It's airports at four in the morning and the boredom of hotel rooms,

an anonymous passage through another strange city, eating room

service meals alone with the television on for company.<p>

 

So eventually, I figured out that I could make lemonade. This

project is only three trips old and I'm only just starting to

understand how I want to do it. Comments appreciated.<p><div></div>

That last Hampton Inn shot is great. Think you ought to ditch the room service meals on the next trip. Looking forward to further reports.

I think your idea of documenting the boredom and lonliness of a road warrior is an excellent one. My 2c is that you need to make your photos have more emotional impact about boredom and lonliness. At the moment you're taking well lit photos of icons that must carry a great deal of meaning to you but to me, I'm not a road warrior, I just see a straight on photo of a hotel bed, an angle view of a tellie, food on a tray, etc. Boredom and lonliness are emotions and your photos need more emotional impact. Hope this is useful, its not meant negatively.

Consider putting yourself in the reflection, gazing at the tv. I carry a tabletop tripod, but you can use a cushion, a tshirt or pillow as well.

Hope you recieved danger pay for the Dorval stop over, ahhhem. I like the presentation a lot just as it are. As you say you are just beginning to feel your way around this project so some photos may or may not be suitable for inclusion in the final cut. B+W adds something to the drudgery and pathos, the Paul Simon song 'Homeward Bound' half came to mind for some reason.

 

You might consider creating a script for the next leg. It could include for example 'dragging the shutter' on a solitary individual walking through the airport at 4:30 A.M. That is to say, plan in advance how to squeezing your equipment for emphasis/effects on whatever you want the pictures to say.

 

Just my thoughs. Great project!

This is stark stuff Andrew, particularly for lemonade. I rather like the simplicity of the shots. There is an almost geometric formalism to some of them which accents the anonymity of these places and symbols. Spinning off of Eric's comments, I think you have captured the lack of signification in these icons; road life is a terribly isolating existence. This is good stuff. Let's see more.

Okay, let's start with the photograph shown above.

 

I like it. I like it very much. I find it delightful. Delight is what you achieve when you use mirrors and reflections. It's fairly easy--a bonus for all those times you have to crawl on our belly to catch the right moment in the right way. I'd say any chap who could knock off a fun photo like this is not bored even though he might be lonely.

 

I like it. But not for the reasons (I believe) Andrew wants me to like it.

 

I like photo diaries. Andrew shot seemingly trivial but actually crucial things. My favorite photographer, Walker Evans, would have enjoyed his portfolio.

 

This brings me to the portfolio itself.

 

The images are fine. The problem is that the photographer, or I should say the author, wants the viewer to read the photographs a certain way--to symbolize the lonliness and bordom that the frequent business traveler feels. More specifically, Andrew Somerset wants us to understand his life as a business traveler. The objects that are photographed, however, are intrisically neutral. This being the case, they will elicit reactions based on the indidvidual viewers' experiences.

 

A lot of people will feel nothing. The photographs won't do anything for them (as the saying goes). For others, like myself, they will elicit largely pleasant feelings.

 

I too travel frequently--but to academic conferences. When I travel it is almost always with my wife, who, like myself, is an academic. The room service plate reminds me of shared meals. The shots of the hotel room feel cozy. (A hotel room where everything works and is well taken care of is a blessing--I've been in more than a few that were dreadful.) The shot presented above is something I'd do for fun. The empty airport (back to the portfolio) is heaven to me. No long lines for security.

 

We've recently discussed the problem of words and pictures in another thread in this forum. In that case the words of the photographer got in the way of our appriciation of the photograph. In this case the words do nothing for the photographs per se but do inform us of why the photographer began his project. That's fine.

 

The old saying goes that one picture is worth a thousand words. This is not always true. It is not true in this case. Here Andrew effectively conveyed in very few words the feelings of lonliness and bordom that he as a business traveler experiences. He also informs us that he started this project as a way of dealing with the situation he describes. The photographs, however good as they are, do not say this as clearly as his words.

 

This is a worthwhile project. Andrew may eventually document the lives of other business travelers. Or he may keep his photographic project as a personal diary. If he chooses the latter course, a word of caution is necessary. There are just so many images of hotel rooms and airport facilities that a viewer can look at before the freshness of the experience wears off. So a purely personal photo diary may in the end be of value only to the photographer and possibly his family and close friends.

 

Also, the end result of this project should not be self-pity. Andrew's message above is quite enough to convey his state of being as a business traveler. The "lemonade" ought to be using the camera to go beyond bordom and loneliness.

 

The beauty of photography is that the camera allows you to go beyond yourself and to comprehend things in the world that are mysterious to you, that frighten you and that give you delight. I am most interested in how this project turns out and wish the photographer (and possibly writer) the best of luck.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I note with amusement that the Google ads at the top of that page are for "Quality hotel, Dorval," and "Dorval, Canada, vacations." What kind of twisted freak would propose a vacation in Dorval?

 

My original brief for this was "boring pix of boring hotel rooms" and as I said off the top it's taken me a few trips to start getting what I want from them, which Matt expressed rather concisely. I mean, towel racks?

 

(There's not much to shoot in a hotel room, by the way ... locking yourself in and forcing yourself to shoot a roll of film is an interesting exercise in itself....)

 

It's not just about boredom and loneliness. The idea, ultimately, is anonymity -- the precise arrangement of the folded towels changes, the weather forecaster and map changes, but everything bears a numbing similarity. Mixed with this, airports, strange highways, airplanes. Eventually, the unfortunate reader should be left to wonder where exactly he is.

 

Mike, I think you're right. (I'm gaining weight.) But I like the Halifax room service tray with its mocking flower. The other one, with the Denver Post, should go. It reflects an approach I abandoned, the newspaper providing a specific index of time, place and culture (although on the uploaded image it's not legible).

A few further thoughts as I find my above comments are garbled in places. The lonilness of the long distance business traveler is valid and should be brought to light. A person can have a fine family and a fine home but may pay for it with a life of utter loniness and frustration--apart from those wonderful things. My question is whether this story can told without words and only through pictures. Only you, Andrew, can know the answer.

 

I recommend you read George Orwell's novel "Coming Up for Air" (if you haven't already). It is about a salesman who is on the road for most of the year. It may be an inspiration.

 

The personal experience must in some way become a universal experience to validate itself. Good luck again.

I think I agree with Alex. This is a potentially interesting project, but is as yet underdeveloped. And I wonder if the original concept of conveying boredom and alienation isn't too limiting. A more complex or nuanced conception of the experience (some of the possible complications are suggested by Alex) might produce a richer, more complex sequence, which plays off different feelings against each other rather than reiterating the same thing over and over. Though the idea of conveying anonymity through repetition is interesting, it's tricky to realize without being boring oneself (what comes into my mind are Ed Ruscha's gas stations and parking lots, which work because of the utterly deadpan presentation, or the 'typological' tables of the Beckers).

 

There's a book on hotel rooms by Nan Goldin, which might be worth checking out, and lots of her photos show beds, remains of meals, etc. Also Eggleston shoots that kind of thing a lot. I've been using Koudelka's Exiles as a reference point for my own work on the theme of travel and fugitive intimacy.

 

In short, when I said I wasn't convinced, Andrew, I meant that I didn't think you were quite there yet. But I look forward to seeing how this project develops.

 

I also queried the absence of people in my earlier comment. It's not obligatory to include people of course, but aren't they part of the business trip experience too? And to pick up on a point Alex makes, dealing with people is a way of trying to get to grips with experiences different from one's own.

Clients are part of the business trip experience, yes. But they don't pay fees for people to take pictures, so the camera stays stashed when I'm working. Which is the only time I usually see them. So this is ultimately about the travelling rather than the working.

 

I should point out that hotel rooms are only part of this project; they're just the part I took on first. So some of the missing balance should fill in (I hope) as I approach the other aspects and complete the hotel part.

 

Thanks for the comments, Jonathon.

Andrew, I think it is a fabolous idea and well worth exploring. Perhaps add that horrible biz commute as well...

forgot the pix<div></div>