Rob Hann is a self-taught photographer. In 1993 he shot his first commission, a portrait of Lydia Lunch for Lime Lizard magazine. It was the first of over 900 commissions for many leading magazines, newspapers and record companies. Among many others he has photographed Tom Hanks, David Byrne, Willem Dafoe, Chuck D, Steve Buscemi, Daft Punk, JG Ballard, Chloe Sevigny, Gilberto Gil, Paul Auster, Timothy Spall, Moby, Jeff Goldblum, Michael Moore, Ewan McGregor, Ray Liotta, Michael Stipe, Paulo Coelho, Mark Wahlberg, Paul Smith and Gil Scott-Heron. Hann has 7 photographs in the permanent collection of The National Portrait Gallery in London. In 2003 he moved from London to New York City. Since 2010 he has turned exclusively to road trip photography throughout the United States. His photographs have been included in several group shows and he had his first solo show at Christian Larsen Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden in November 2013. Today we share his series, I Dream a Highway.
I Dream a Highway
One dark and rainy winter’s night in 1999 I was at home in London, England watching tv. There was a show called “This is Modern Art”. The presenter was driving an empty road under a clear blue sky outside the high desert town of Marfa,Texas talking about the artist Donald Judd. It was a beautiful place. I thought “I want to be there.”. In October 2001 I flew to Los Angeles and, over the course of the next two weeks, drove a rental car through the desert states of the American southwest to Marfa and back again taking a different route. I travelled with my camera and took photos along the way. It was a thrilling experience. That trip and those photographs were the beginning of this series. I now live in New York City and have taken many more road trips with my camera. Whenever I can I fly to another part of the country, rent a car, and go searching for the beauty, the thrill, the magic, that I found on that first road trip and the many trips that have followed.
To view more of Rob’s work, please visit his website.