Benjamin Swett

In 1998, as an experiment, I began driving up the old state highway connecting Manhattan and Montreal along the eastern border of New York State, getting to know the towns along the way and taking pictures. The road had always interested me, not only because I had lived along it at various points in my life, but also because something in its current appearance gave me the feeling that it might teach me something about how upstate New York had come to look the way it does. I also just needed to get away somewhere and do something new, and here this road was waiting at my front door. Some years later, I managed to organize my notes and photographs into a book about these trips, a sort of photographic narrative describing some of what I had seen and how it had affected my life and that of my family. It ended up being more personal than I had planned, and I am grateful to the many people who allowed me to include them in it. The book was published in 2007 by the Quantuck Lane Press, with the help of a grant from Furthermore. It was designed by Laura Lindgren. Interestingly enough, the photographs continue to have a life of their own. The latest exhibit is at the Albany International Airport from June 1, 2010 through January 4, 2011 as part of the airport’s Art & Culture Program.

"This is a haunting and insightful work that transcends the picturesque to approach the profound."

--From the Forward by Robert Stone

View images from traveling exhibit

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