West Coast Road Trip

The U.S. West Coast is a mixture of magnificent landscapes and a still very young culture of immigrants who followed the call to “Go West”. The “Homestead Act” from 1862 promised each pioneer 160 acres of free land. To the untrained eye, the region’s indigenous cultures are nearly invisible. In reality, however, indigenous peoples had formed and preserved the region’s vast landscapes for thousands of years. It is in those landscapes that the indigenous cultures are still intrinsically present today—both visually and spiritually.

Today, the state of California is one of the economically strongest regions in the world. This fact visually manifests itself in many parts of the state in the form of gigantic construction sites, extensive infrastructure, and urban agglomerations with enormous energy, water, and land consumption. This series of images is intended to play with our clichés and concepts of the American Dream in a way that is both calm and thought-provoking.