Every year I load up my car with my dog(s) and head to New Orleans for a few weeks. But I take the very long way choosing to take state and county roads most of the way, photographing decaying Americana as I go. The longest I’ve gone is six weeks and 7,000 miles in a loop down to NOLA, over to Texas then up to Chicago and back. At the end of every trip I’m exhausted and think I’ll never do it again, it’s too much. Then the next year I’m chomping at the bit to do it again and the reason why is below—the nostalgic beauty and gothic mystery of what I see when I get off the beaten path.

Ghost towns, small towns taken over by kudzu, plantation ruins, former boom towns…together they tell a story about the US that I find endlessly fascinating.