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Monday, October 7, 2013

Emotional photographs of America's real 'beauty and sadness' captured by roaming photographer during 5-year journey across the country


  • Curran Hatleberg driven from coast to coast five times or more
  • His two photographic series, Dogwood and The Crowded Edge, show moments that have 'colliding emotional spaces’
  • The pictures show real human emotion and intimate moments
  • He says he just got in his car and drove, and never really planned his destination
A photographer has spent five years driving across America taking photos that represent a wide swath of the country.
Curran Hatleberg, who has driven from coast to coast five times or more, says he was interested in looking for ‘sort of shared familiarity and human contact in a country I called home but I didn’t know much about’.
He spent the five years shooting the two ongoing photographic series, Dogwood and The Crowded Edge, and says he never really knew where he was going when he got into his car.
Sometimes he would travel with the intention of eventually landing on a friend’s or family member’s couch, but the destination could change on a whim.
‘Initially, it was spawned by a desire to see what I could see and learn something along the way and have an adventure,’ Hatleberg tells Slate.
He says he tried to take pictures that serve as ‘open-ended imaginative space’ where the viewer’s interpretation of the image was not guided by preconceptions about the region.
‘If it becomes too specific, there's less room for creative imagination on the part of the viewer.’
Hatleberg says his journey was a quest to find moments that contained ‘colliding emotional spaces’, often a sense of beauty combined with a sense of sadness. 
A couple lie on a blanket in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2012, while an elderly couple sit behind them
A couple lie on a blanket in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2012, while an elderly couple sit behind them
A man wipes away the tears of a woman in Denver, Colorado, in 2011
A man wipes away the tears of a woman in Denver, Colorado, in 2011
A man in a blue suit talks on a payphone while another man sits inside a black car in Detroit, Michigan
A man in a blue suit talks on a payphone while another man sits inside a black car in Detroit, Michigan
A young couple sit on a couch smoking cigarettes with three dogs
A young couple sit on a couch smoking cigarettes with three dogs in 2011
A young woman and two children draw with chalk on the ground near a trailer park in South Dakota in 2010
A young woman and two children draw with chalk on the ground near a trailer park in South Dakota in 2010
Two people sit and read on the side of the road in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2010
Two people sit and read on the side of the road in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2010
Gardens are seen at the back of houses in an unknown US state
Gardens are seen at the back of houses in an unknown US state
A dog howls at the back of a worn-down building in an unknown US state
A dog howls at the back of a worn-down building in an unknown US state
A young woman serves food in a diner in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2010
A young woman serves food in a diner in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2010
Bystanders watch as two young men get involved in a fight in Riverfront, in an unknown US state, in 2012
Bystanders watch as two young men get involved in a fight in an unknown US state, in 2012
A girl with a plaster on her forehead takes a bite of her burger at a fast good restaurant in an unknown US state
A girl with a plaster on her forehead takes a bite of her burger at a fast good restaurant in an unknown US state
A group of people stand around after an incident in their neighbourhood, in an unknown US state
A group of people stand around after an incident in their neighbourhood, in an unknown US state
A girl in a restaurant looks out of the window in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2010
A girl in a restaurant looks out of the window in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2010
A man stands in front of a large white wall as the sunset creates beautiful shades of pink on the clouds in 2012 in an unknown US state
A man stands in front of a large white wall as the sunset creates beautiful shades of pink on the clouds in 2012 in an unknown US state
A family sits on the porch of her house on 190 Powell Street in an unknown US state
A family sits on the porch of her house on 190 Powell Street in an unknown US state
A sign bearing the picture of a deceased man hangs in a tree in an unknown US state
A sign bearing the picture of a deceased man hangs in a tree in an unknown US state
A car with flames painting along its side sits with its door open in an unknown US state
A car with flames painting along its side sits with its door open in an unknown US state
A young woman sits outside on a bench as a rainbow appears in the distance
A young woman sits outside on a bench as a rainbow appears in the distance
A child plays with a dog in the backyard next to a green bicycle
A child plays with a dog in the backyard next to a green bicycle

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