Artist’s Statement
We are Somehow Connected by our Ghosts
The abandoned shoe in the road is to me one of the most startling pieces of roadside detritus. A shoe in the road, like a true ghost, defies a rational explanation. Science probably can’t explain the phenomenon nor predict it. Instead, spotting an abandoned shoe lying in a road or highway invites only questions and conjecture. These shoes expose a gap in understanding in a way that other common roadside debris does not. Plastic bottles, beer cans, carcasses, baseball caps, sweatshirts and tires can be easily explained. An abandoned shoe in the road is much more difficult. An abandoned shoe in the road contains vestiges.
Memory as Ghost, Roadside Mythologies
When we encounter the abandoned road shoe we are challenged to once again ponder the inevitable questions of existence:
How did it get here? Did it just drop out of the sky? Who is responsible for this?! Where is its partner? Who belongs(ed) this shoe? Are they searching for it? Where were they going? Did they make it?
Did someone leave it here purposely, deciding one day that they’d be better off with ‘just the one shoe?’
Or, more tragically, did someone unwittingly lose it? And, if so, just how does one unknowingly lose a shoe on a busy highway?
Identity Markers/Mile Markers/Intersected Journeys
An abandoned shoe conjures a sense of loss or incompleteness or even a sense of a journey interrupted — possibly ended altogether. At the same time, it serves as evidence of a journey that has existed or may even still exist. And, of course, one can only encounter a shoe in the road during the undertaking of one’s own journeys, and thus the shoe in the road also becomes an intersection of journeys.
Such essential questions of existence expose gaps of knowledge into which one can only fill with imagined stories, meanings, and explanations. Attempting to explain the shoe in the road is an act of mythology.
We are Somehow Connected by our Ghosts
The abandoned shoe in the road is to me one of the most startling pieces of roadside detritus. A shoe in the road, like a true ghost, defies a rational explanation. Science probably can’t explain the phenomenon nor predict it. Instead, spotting an abandoned shoe lying in a road or highway invites only questions and conjecture. These shoes expose a gap in understanding in a way that other common roadside debris does not. Plastic bottles, beer cans, carcasses, baseball caps, sweatshirts and tires can be easily explained. An abandoned shoe in the road is much more difficult. An abandoned shoe in the road contains vestiges.
Memory as Ghost, Roadside Mythologies
When we encounter the abandoned road shoe we are challenged to once again ponder the inevitable questions of existence:
How did it get here? Did it just drop out of the sky? Who is responsible for this?! Where is its partner? Who belongs(ed) this shoe? Are they searching for it? Where were they going? Did they make it?
Did someone leave it here purposely, deciding one day that they’d be better off with ‘just the one shoe?’
Or, more tragically, did someone unwittingly lose it? And, if so, just how does one unknowingly lose a shoe on a busy highway?
Identity Markers/Mile Markers/Intersected Journeys
An abandoned shoe conjures a sense of loss or incompleteness or even a sense of a journey interrupted — possibly ended altogether. At the same time, it serves as evidence of a journey that has existed or may even still exist. And, of course, one can only encounter a shoe in the road during the undertaking of one’s own journeys, and thus the shoe in the road also becomes an intersection of journeys.
Such essential questions of existence expose gaps of knowledge into which one can only fill with imagined stories, meanings, and explanations. Attempting to explain the shoe in the road is an act of mythology.
About this Exhibit
I began photographing shoes in the road in 2015. All of the shoes in this exhibit were photographed as found. The approach is documentarian, although it must be noted that the framing and composition choices do of course affect the documentary narrative. Experiencing a shoe in the road from a car window is completely different from getting up close with a lens. At no time did I move nor pose the shoes to better the shot, but the air currents of passing vehicles often moved some shoes such as lightweight sandals.
I recorded these moments often very quickly with whatever camera was on hand in sometimes dangerous situations (do not try this at home). Very often, there was no time to compose shots or adjust settings. There are many, many shoes that could not be photographed due to dangerous highway conditions. I am thinking particularly of one shoe on North 287 near exit 45 in New Jersey, and another on the long, two lane road leading to MCRD Parris Island, SC, where there simply was no place to pull over and stop.
I invite you to ponder these abandoned shoes with empathy, and pay close attention to the images and stories they evoke in your mind. More, I hope that as you encounter the abandoned road shoes in your own journey you take pause to note that art, narrative, and mythologies are all around us.
May you be kind in your stories.
I began photographing shoes in the road in 2015. All of the shoes in this exhibit were photographed as found. The approach is documentarian, although it must be noted that the framing and composition choices do of course affect the documentary narrative. Experiencing a shoe in the road from a car window is completely different from getting up close with a lens. At no time did I move nor pose the shoes to better the shot, but the air currents of passing vehicles often moved some shoes such as lightweight sandals.
I recorded these moments often very quickly with whatever camera was on hand in sometimes dangerous situations (do not try this at home). Very often, there was no time to compose shots or adjust settings. There are many, many shoes that could not be photographed due to dangerous highway conditions. I am thinking particularly of one shoe on North 287 near exit 45 in New Jersey, and another on the long, two lane road leading to MCRD Parris Island, SC, where there simply was no place to pull over and stop.
I invite you to ponder these abandoned shoes with empathy, and pay close attention to the images and stories they evoke in your mind. More, I hope that as you encounter the abandoned road shoes in your own journey you take pause to note that art, narrative, and mythologies are all around us.
May you be kind in your stories.