A visual journey of three months traveling across the American West.

“During my road trip across the American West (3 months, 10,000 miles), I read the autobiography of Geronimo, the famed Apache chief. He died just 107 years ago yet so much has changed since then.

I went on searching for his birth place, the places where he lived, where he struggled, and see how they look nowadays. Besides that I didn’t try to focus on a specific topic. I wanted to examine how our common lot is bound to the land. Exploitation and destruction of the environment is an underlining theme in my work, but through a series of subjective documents. More than anything else, my interest was to establish bridges between two ages, two universes, reality and myth…

In terms of technique, I take my time. I work with a 6×6 Hasselblad. The long horizons cut the square frame in two, providing a very strong structure that highlights the dualities of the moments I captured. Many times, these horizons represented a front between human and natural activity, often with bad consequences.

But sometimes, nature takes its rights back. Sometimes, especially out West, the traces of man are light. It’s so beautiful when life truly flows. I can feel it in me: I breathe, I feel here, in my place, on my planet.

An old Indian legend speaks about the two wolves fighting in man’s heart: one is love and hope, the other anger and fear. The wolf who wins is the one we feed the most.”

– Discover more of Jef’s work here.