The Weekly Photograph #16

Bill, from Carbon County

Entry #16 from The Work

Bill, Saratoga, Wyoming
2017
from Carbon County published by Zatara Press

Bill passed through here each July for the rodeo. I found him next to his truck the moment the crowd cheered as the bull-rider’s neck was broken. He spoke to one person, the gate keeper of the corral, between each cowboys’ entrance into the arena. He would then go back to sit beside his truck, perched high up on the steel tubing of the rodeo fence. It was the distance from his big red cabover Pete which made Bill nervous. He’s been driving for decades throughout the West: Texarkana, Coldwell Junction, Spitsburg, Jasper Valley, Yellowpierce.

“There’s no home, but the road.” he told me. His entire being spoke these words with conviction. His eye’s shined with the thought of returning to any two lane blacktop and moving on to the next show. I knew I hadn’t much time in his presence. He learned early on to keep his mind busy with reciting the works of great writers he memorized while driving. Refusing me his visage, Bill spoke words from a book of dollar store poetry, turned back towards the rodeo, and offered me his shadow

John Sanderson
New York City
1/8/2025

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This image is included in the Carbon County booklet and folio box published by Zatara Press.

Purchase a booklet from me directly by clicking the image below ($30 shipped):

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Journal introduction from The Work

The American landscape in my time.  Thousands upon thousands of miles traversed in search of pictures.

They become pictures when I see something. 

Something which cannot be explained in words, only related to on some level of empathy.

Feeling with the light, subject or an arrangement of the two.

Driving, walking, searching deeper and longer for that which eludes me.

What I search for is unattainable.

But what keeps me coming back is the Quest, for those moments where a picture lines up with my imagination.

It is a complete circle.

"To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield." -Tennyson

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In other news…

• See/listen to new interview with Urbanautica’s Urbanaut Podcast

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