Justine Kurland: Highway Kind

Justine Kurland continues the photographic legacy of Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, and Joel Sternfeld as her work delves into the American tale and the concept of the American dream contrasted with reality. Her fascination with the road, the western frontier, escape, and alternative ways of life permeates this stunning and significant body of work. Since 2004, Kurland and her son, Casper, have traveled in their custom van, navigating south in the winter and north in the summer. Her role as both artist and mother is balanced between structure and spontaneity, while Casper's interests- particularly in trains and later in cars- often inspire Kurland's subject matter. Throughout the series, he is depicted at various ages against expansive landscapes and among the subcultures of train-hoppers and wanderers they encounter. Kurland's perspective is at once gritty and romantic, idealistic and dystopian. From symbolic images of trains traversing vast landscapes to allegorical representations