ROUTE 66/ Ed Justice Jr. and Edward Keating

Welcome to ROUTE 66 with Ed Justice Jr. and Edward Keating! Join us on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 6:00 PM at Leica Gallery Los Angeles for a night filled with stories, photos, and memories of the iconic Route 66 and current photography taken by auto renaissance man Ed Justice Jr. Get ready to hear firsthand accounts from these two legends of the road as they share their adventures and insights. Don't miss this unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the history and culture of America's most famous highway. Limited Parking. Ride Share encouraged. See you there!

MAIN STRƎƎT
The Lost Dream of Route 66 Photographs by Edward Keating

MAIN STREET is the culmination of 11 years of travels along Route 66 — the 2,400-mile stretch between Chicago and Santa Monica, called the “mother road” in John Steinbeck's “The Grapes of Wrath”. Keating ventured westward and back, insightfully documenting life along 66 and lives of Americans that have clung to it.

SEPTEMBER 1977 - Strung out in a twelve-dollar room in Flagstaff, Arizona, along Route 66. Another hard night of drinking. Another blackout. I stagger out onto the hot blacktop of America's Main Street and no car. I had lost my car. It wasn't until 2000, as staff photographer for The New York Times -- decades without a drink -- that l returned to photograph the damnable highway that nearly ruined me, and somehow saved me.

For 11 years, Keating photographed “devastation everywhere. Against everything we had been asked to believe by Washington … America was not growing stronger and none of the promised benefits had materialized.”

“To see the world as moments, fleeting moments, rather than the continuous flow of daily life is what I search for. The power of a still image to capture a fleeting moment and make it a permanent memory has always captivated me. The Pop Art movement of the 1950’s and 60’s, along with the Surrealist Movement that started in the 1920’s have greatly influenced my work. My work is a reflection of the tangible world. I look for subjects that are in plain sight and work to capture them with unexpected representations. I try to remove myself from the everyday world, but the everyday world is seen in my photographs.” - Ed Justice Jr.

Host or Publisher Leica Camera