ACROSS AMERICA

I was surprised by the sheer scale of this country. I knew it was an entire continent, stretching from ocean to ocean, but experiencing these distances firsthand is something entirely different. Driving across the state of Washington from west to east takes about 8-9 hours. And that’s just one state. And there are 50 of them. The distance between me and New York is greater than the distance between Kyiv and Madrid. I used to think Seattle was right on the ocean, and it almost is. It’s just that the ocean is still 3.5 hours away. And it’s like that almost everywhere: everything seems close, but it's still 3-5 hours away, just within one state.

On the road, I’m always a passenger. And the journey is often just as interesting and engaging as the destination itself. But stopping for photos seems like a waste of time. That’s how my photo collection "Across America" was born. Small towns, wooden poles, old trucks, isolated gas stations — everything our eyes have gotten used to through movies and music videos, I now see with my own eyes. I’m here, surrounded by these vast spaces. Most of this land, I see exactly like this: in motion, from the passenger seat, through the window, with bright or not-so-bright spots passing by. Maybe I’ll be able to convey the feeling of small-town America, as it truly is.