If you happened to be driving along Route 1 in the eastern United States in the summer of 1954, you might have encountered a peculiar crew in or near a car. A petite, brown-haired woman, scanning the landscape with her portable darkroom. Beside her, her dog, a giant schnauzer, and a newlywed couple, Damon behind the wheel and Sara, who played assistant.
You may have recognized Berenice Abbott, an icon of American photography, as she embarked on a 4,000-mile journey along America's oldest road, Route 1. From cool Maine to the sunny Florida Keys, she crossed Georgia, Virginia, and Connecticut, connecting the original thirteen colonies. "For this reason [...], U.S. 1 makes a great appeal to the imagination," Abbott said.
The photographer, famous for her portraits and documentary images that showcase urban life and the transformation of cities during the 1930s, set out to capture it "before bulldozers and derricks moved in." Before Interstate 95 transformed this rapidly changing America, torn between the cultural revolution - the invention of the contraceptive pill, the birth of rock, the rise of supermarkets and fast food - and an ambient hyper-conservatism, against a backdrop of witch hunts and struggles for civil rights.
