American in 20/20 Gordon Hight

from February 2020 Gallup Journey Magazine

by Gallup Journey

Not All Employees Are Created Equal

Mississippi; State Rt. 1

Mississippi River crossing

Eastern Oklahoma; State Rt. 116

Tulsa, Oklahoma

American in 20/20

By Gordon Hight

“1955. I cross the States. For a year. 500 rolls of film. I go into post offices, Woolworths, 10 cent shops, bus stations. I sleep in cheap hotels. Around seven in the morning I go to a nearby bar. I work all the time. I don’t speak much. I try not to be seen.”

These words are my road map. They were written sixty-five years ago by one of my photographic heroes, Robert Frank, who was describing how he went about creating one of the most significant books of photography: The Americans. In 1955, Frank drove across the United States in search of pictures that spoke of who we truly were as a nation. For 2020, I’m doing the same.

At the end of last year, I wrapped up my ninth and final season of work at my other job. I was a fly fishing guide on the rivers around Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was good work in a gorgeous part of the world, but as the ideas for this project came together, an opportunity to study an entire country and attempt to document it at a historic period in time, I became convinced that doing it right required a full-time commitment. So, I sold my drift boat. I sold my house. And I started mapping out this photojournalism journey that I’m calling American in 20/20.

Why now?

Like 1789, 1860, 1929, and 1968, 2020 sets up to be a pivotal year in US history. A deeply divided nation will hold a presidential election in November. This period of economic growth that continues to drive the stock market past record highs seems to march on, indifferent to the gravity of market cycles that have historically called for correction. Tenuous international relations put alliances and peace in jeopardy and more troops are heading overseas. Australia burns as we wait for our next fire season at home.

Like our nation always has, we navigate the good and the bad. And while I’m optimistic for prolonged prosperity and positive outcomes to the circumstances we confront, for better or worse, 2020 will be a year

Winslow, Arizona

of change. At the very least, it will be a year in which we are afforded the opportunity to define ourselves as a nation again, and those choices will say a great deal about who we are collectively and where we’re headed.

While it would be impossible for me, a single photographer, to be everywhere news breaks, I plan to visit all the states in the continental US and let serendipity be in charge of what I’ll find. While the news cycles spin, I’m content to focus on the people I meet, how they face their own challenges, and the ways they lead their lives. I want to examine our humanity in 2020 and explore what we value. I want to interact with others whom I’d otherwise never get to meet and try to understand their perspectives. And hopefully, as has repeatedly been the case already, I want to find encouragement in the goodness of the human spirit and our determination to overcome adversity.

I’d love to tell you exactly how this project will play out and what my book will ultimately look like, but to be honest, I have no idea. So far, I’ve taken portraits, landscapes, and street scenes. I’ve shot digital and film; black and white and color. And as ideas of what to shoot and where to go continue to evolve, and being merely three weeks in, a clear through-line still eludes me. I have faith it will come together, though. I just have to keep doing the work, walking the streets, and clicking the shutter. Until then, I hope you enjoy these from the first days of the new year, a week-long drive from Georgia to California, as a small taste of what’s to come.

Gordon Hight is an Americabased photographer and writer. His work can be found @americain2020 and @ flycaster1 on Instagram.