Michele Bressan

A journey of around 9,000 km by car, from New York to San Francisco, spread over one month. Dozens of cities and hotels—visually overwhelming, yet often boring. Initially, the plan was to trace events related to the upcoming presidential elections, but the trip gradually evolved into something different. It’s tempting to say it captured some form of “American Beauty,” (yeah, the plastic bag, you know it) but for me, it was more about avoiding those clichéd Americana shots—those good images that are really just echoes of classic American photographers embedded in our subconscious. A few such shots did slip into the They Americans project, but I eventually focused on something else.

•Sorry, We’re Closed•
What struck me most was how quickly, after leaving a major city, you find yourself drifting through an endless landscape. So many small, isolated towns—tiny communities scattered in the middle of the desert or along highways. Many of these towns were nearly abandoned, resembling movie sets. Sidewalks lined with shops bearing “Sorry, we’re closed” signs, likely for years. Some shop windows still displayed items from their last setup, while others were completely empty. The reflections of the surroundings in the windows blended everything into a new kind of scene, in a sort of dioramas illustrating the present state of these places within the larger frame of the actual American reality.

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