With two epicenters on either side, it only makes sense that we explore America horizontally. There’s an East and a West, and in between lies a vast patchwork of states that are all too often skipped or flown over.
These photos take you into that middle. They cut straight through the heart of America—from Texas to Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, and North Dakota. The real America. Where diners, motels, and solitary cowboys reign. The mythical middle. Where endless highways stretch the meaning of “far” to its absolute limit. Where people assume Barcelona is just a road trip away from Ghent. And where you realize that, in theory, it kind of is.
So there’s nothing to do but drive. For hours on end, with the passing landscapes looping by like a screensaver. Until a massive wooden cross appears on the horizon. You stop blinking and hit the gas, afraid this mirage might vanish. Suddenly, you’re in the middle of nowhere, staring up at a wooden cross as tall as a wind turbine, planted right at your feet.
Somewhere in the middle, you come to know freedom as an unreliable scale—one that tips into extremes without warning. A scale on which people cautiously try to balance hope and reality, in the hope of finding equilibrium.