Heartbreak Hotel

A year after the Twin Towers fell and a few months after my first long term relationship disintegrated, I embarked on a trip through America. I had no fixed plan or agenda, other than to drift, experience and photograph. I traveled on Greyhounds from New York to San Francisco. I came to know America through the people that shared my bus trips. Sometimes for countless hours on end people would tell me their stories. I met priests, recently released prisoners and everyone between.

I was lured by the musical significance of some of the towns I visited; staying in cheap hotels, eating cheap and hanging out in dive bars. While growing up in South Africa I followed American sitcoms like Knight Rider and the A Team. Later, as my interest in photography grew, I immersed myself in the work of Frank, Winnogrand, Arbus, Avedon, Goldberg, Mark and Fink to name a few. My work has been influenced by these great American photographers, but it also allowed me to experience what is to be free.

Shot in 2002 and edited in the Trump era.