A few years ago, I decided to leave the windy city and travel the open road, experiencing and photographing this vast country I call home. That original one-year goal flew out the window over the 100,000+ miles on some lonely two lane highway in the desert. Every week, I will be sharing some of my favorite places and perspectives from these life-changing years. My name is Emily Caldwell and......read more
This is a story of a man who calls himself the sheriff, the mayor, and the town drunk. He is Population: 1 in a forgotten town just off the border of Mexico. After 1941, the last resident left this mining encampment and no one ever came back... except for Sundog. After traveling for 14 years, he landed in this ghost town living as the miners did; without electricity or running......read more
It's around this time of year again when sleeves get longer and the sun begins to get that familiar autumn slant, signs that shorter days are swiftly approaching. Though this summer was particularly long and hot, it inevitably feels too short, the sweet days and nights playing on repeat in your mind like the perfect film you don't want to forget. I recall watching Bruce Brown's......read more
I stumbled upon a fallen redwood in Northern California along the Avenue of the Giants in 2005. I immediately fell in love with the grove, including what I have since called "my tree." I set everything up and took a self-portrait in black and white film. Every year and sometimes twice a year since, I have carefully picked my way through the Avenue of the Giants in the hope that I will recognize......read more
About a month ago, I got that familiar nagging that often happens when I've been a couple of weeks in once place. On this particular afternoon, I dipped off Interstate 17 heading North to explore a string of ghost towns along a winding dirt road. Immediately off the exit, I dove onto a perfect, dusty highway straight into the sun. A little dot on the map, Cleator, Arizona is a town that has been......read more
The decayed and the forgotten have long been my favorite subjects to shoot on the road. You can find them in all places and in all things, standing with integrity and tales from a time long ago. Every year, I take a drive up Highway 1 from LA to Portland with a keen eye and a car full of cameras. On this trip, I approached a beach on the northern coast of Oregon and to my wonder, from the......read more
One winding autumn drive through Oak Creek Canyon in Northern Arizona brought me to a place that I've been coming back to every year since. I return to a cove with such spectacular reflections that you actually get lost in what's real and what's mirrored. It's the perfect place to reflect within, listen, and watch the patterns glitter in the speckled sun. My mirror pond. Mediation......read more
Through my years of travel, I have come to understand that at its core, life is a series of departures and arrivals, both physical and emotional. The trip is not about the destination, but about the journey so they say. I cannot think of a better entrance to a city than racing forward toward a distant skyline on a highway or flying over the terrain before officially arriving. This is a photo......read more
I was lucky enough to encounter JB Snyder in Phoenix, Arizona as an artistic force in the vibrant art scene. His mesmerizing graffiti murals in kaleidoscope colors grace many buildings along Roosevelt Street, better known as "Roosevelt Row". Often likened to stained glass windows, each piece has become a landmark downtown. So it's no wonder that when I was asked to document JB......read more
Churning over roads well traveled beaten by the wind and snow you hold your direction steady wide awake on the voyage home. Parallel lines stretch anchored between tiny handfuls of cars, as you watch the day's last light fade beneath a heavy blanket of stars. The cloak of night arrives with speed lofty buildings and cities gone cast off into an......read more