MAIN STRƎƎT - The Lost Dream of Route 66
About the Artist
Edward Keating has lived and worked as a photographer in New York City since 1981. After ten years of learning to photograph on the streets he was hired as a Staff Photographer at The New York Times where he covered national and international news and was a regular contributor to the Sunday The New York Times Magazine. He co-founded “Vows,” The New York Times wedding column and shared in a Pulitzer Prize for his photographs of 9/11. He has also been a regular contributor to Time Magazine, Rolling Stone, W Magazine and New York Magazine. Keating’s work is held by the permanent collections of major museums.
Assigned by The New York Times Magazine to photograph Route 66 in May 2000, I continued on the project after the piece was published for another eleven years, documenting the road’s demise and the social conditions of those who were living out their lives on the lost highway. Contrary to the myth of Route 66 being a place of postcard fun and adventure, what I found on my trips across the ‘Mother Road’ was a road and a culture in distress. Besides a smattering of well-preserved motels, roadside amusements and a handful of nostalgic gift shops, the highway had devolved into little more than an access road to the larger and heavier interstates that often ran parallel. What was left in its wake, was decay and sadness, traces of another time, people just holding on, the end of an era. With a personal and family history with the road, I hoped to get an accurate snapshot of the remnants of America’s “Mother Road,” to preserve what I could for history before the wrecking ball of time completed its work.
— Edward Keating
