Travels with Charley revisited

‘Travels with Charley’ revisited in search of America after 2008

A virtual road trip with Google Streetview

by Leo Tillmanns

Introduction In 1960 John Steinbeck made his famous American road trip described in “Travels with Charley”. In 2012, more than fifty years after the publication of the first edition of Steinbeck’s book, I was inspired to repeat the trip with Google Street view.

In this project, I have tried to reconstruct Steinbeck’s route as much as possible. Using Google Street View I drove for over a year, for many hours each day, through the country that John had also visited. It was not an easy job. Many old roads that John followed have been replaced by four-lane highways. Villages and towns are often at a distance of the great routes and they are not always adequately imaged by Google Street View.

Unlike John, I have used this opportunity to look even further behind Main Street America. From mining sites in Butte to junkyards in the suburbs or industrial complexes in decline. “On the road” I made screenshots, over 5.000 images, which I used in this project. The selection of these photos is fairly arbitrary. They should be the right picture for me. A good photograph, a landmark or a remarkable situation, can make a valuable contribution to this project.

Together with the images of Google Street View, I have gathered texts, statements and comments from the Internet, via Wikipedia, review pages and the websites of institutions and organizations. The result is a virtual image of America today, comprised entirely of online sources, made by the robots of Google Street View and numerous posts on the internet.

This project is not a reconstruction of the America that Steinbeck has seen or experienced. ‘Travels with Charley Revisited’ provides a current picture of the US that enables the viewer to form his own opinion on the state of the country. Of course, seen through the eyes of the author.

Leo Tillmanns

Contents of the project • • • • • • •

24 books printed on A3 glossy paper, softbound (A4 on request) Each book contains 84 pages, 80 photos with additional information and a map Available from January 1th 2018 Subscribers receive one volume each month from January 2018 until December 2019 Monthly payments Price of one volume: 35 euro’s (or $ 50) excl. shipping Each volume is signed by the author and comes with a signed C-print from the authors book ‘American Colour’

A sample of volume 3, Bangor Maine This image is selected primarily due to its photographic quality. I would have made the same image, had I traveled to Bangor Maine. Of course, this image has the usual limitations of Google Street View photos, with its distortions and blurred faces. However, the image tells a story that is complemented by the review written by a chance visitor of Judy’s.

“For weeks I had studied maps, large-scale and small, but maps are not reality at all- they can be tyrants. I know people who are so immersed in road maps that they never see the countryside they pass through, and others who, having traced a route, are held to it as though held by flanged wheels to rails. I pulled Rocinante into a small picnic area maintained by the state of Connecticut and got out my book of maps. And suddenly the United States became huge beyond belief and impossible ever to cross. I wondered how in hell I’d got myself mixed up in a project that couldn’t be carried out”.

John Steinbeck

The crisis of 2008 was the worst U.S. economic calamity since the 1930s. The Great Recession evaporated trillions of dollars in wealth, destroyed 8 million jobs and robbed tens of thousands of their homes. More than half of adults lost their jobs or saw a cut in pay or hours, and almost everybody’s wealth fell. The real estate collapse and the industrial decline in the ‘rust belt’ are clearly visible in these images. On the contrary, incomes have jumped in technology-rich and highly educated centers such as Boston, Seattle and San Francisco. Google Street View also shows the ethnic segregation and traces of street violence.

Drs. Leo J.J. Tillmanns, 1946 Professional career Studied Geography at Nijmegen University and worked as a geography teacher in secondary and higher education. In 1982 he received a Fulbright grant “American Studies� at the University of Minnesota. From 1984 until 1990 he was a member of the Board of Education of the Royal Dutch Geographic Society.

Later, he specialized in developing online teaching materials. He visited several countries to study the educational system, such as Japan, Morocco, China and the USA. From 2004 until 2010 he was program manager of Academic School Limburg.

Photographic activities Worked as photography assistant and photo reporter at Nijmegen University. Later he specialized in color photography, working with Kodachrome and Cibachrome. Big photo projects such as Black Country, American Color and some other projects found their way to numerous shows, exhibitions and publications. In 1982, 1991, 2007 and 2008 he made extended road trips through the USA.