Research- Bill Vacarro

I found Bill Vacarro purely by accident, but was intrigued by his series called 'Roadside attractions'. It's a long-running series he's working on. The idea was sparked from childhood memories of family holidays when he'd sit back and watch everything fly by from the backseat of the car.


The feeling he describes, the one that gave him influence is a strong one for me. Ever since I can remember we went on road trips to visit family, or for football, or just to visit places, usually at least twice a week. It also ties nicely into my next progression which is looking at road trips and photographing/documenting via video one of these trips.

Vacarro is still making images for this project now, having started in 2005. He takes roadtrips east of the Mississipi River, often heading to Canada and just stops to photograph things that catch his eye or spark more childhood memories. The series is done in black and white and the images usually have very selective focus which gives them a dream-like effect, presumably casting back to childhood when everything was big and new and exciting.


The way Vacarro sees the road is as something that draws him in, leads him to things, controls what catches his eye and where he ends up. The idea is an interesting one and an idea for me would to be to just get in my car with no set final destination and see where I end up and what I see.