All Kinds Of Commas is a weekly newsletter about the pursuit of a creative life and all the commas that get us there. My name is Eric Ryan Anderson and I’ve spent the last twenty years exploring the world with a camera and all kinds of good people. This is a space to share some of those stories and look to the future together.

CURRENTLY,

I’m actually sitting at my studio in Nashville, which feels like a rarity lately. The past couple of months have taken me to Montana, Wyoming, New York City, Colorado, Vermont, Massachusetts, Alabama, England and Scotland. And aside from NYC, each of those trips have involved some form of rental car and some form of driving.

Long is the list of books, photographs, songs and stories inspired by the great American road trip. I don’t know if it’s inherently American, but I do know I am one of many born with a desire to hit the open road and see what I run into. And I’m a big believer in the detour. The highway will get you where you need to go, but you’ll never remember it. The long route enables you to wander, chase curiosities and actually witness a place, even if only briefly.

Last year, on a purposefully detour-filled route to Clarksdale to photograph Lainey Wilson, I self-assigned a little idea. What if we pick ten towns along the way and stop for ten minutes in each town. Shoot what we see, don’t worry about the outcome, just use it as some kind of meditative pursuit of curiosity.

That project turned into a little book I made called “Ten Towns” which I recently showed for the first time in NYC and you can view here.

EARLIER THIS MONTH,

I needed to get to Dothan, Alabama for a shoot. Fresh off showing the Ten Towns work and actually starting to appreciate the idea of what it was, I decided to do it again, this time driving through Alabama.

Putting in a bit of research, I mapped out a route that provided ample opportunity to visit a handful of post-industrial towns, mostly on the eastern side of the state. And I convinced Collin to join me yet again… The best of companion for turning an easy six hour drive into a thirteen hour, wandering, rambling adventure. Off we went on a rainy Sunday morning.

At first glance, there are some obvious tropes at play… Who doesn’t love old signage, old buildings, relics of a time forgotten. I’m certainly guilty of that, and wildly aware of the line where curiosity meets predation. It’s one reason I enjoy making this work without any people present… As the intent is certainly not documentary in any way.

Rather, I’m leaning into my upbringing as the son of an architect, a youth spent wandering construction sites and smelling blueprints, a few years studying architecture and my love for shape, form and shadow.

Some architect designed these buildings. These signs were painted with someone’s steady hands. A person was up at night stressing and scheming about their shop, their restaurant or their office. And at some point, that person walked out for the last time. And I love exploring these spaces that, at some point, crossed over from community-building and service-oriented to derelict, quiet and forgotten.

Maybe it’s a meditation on entropy and finitude. Or maybe I just like shapes and shadows. But I decided that it doesn’t really matter. Staying curious, exploring new places, making pictures I find interesting, doing it with a good friend… These aren’t detours from the real work, but starting to feel like they are the real work I’m interested in making.

I’m hoping to turn these into a second book that mirrors the first one… And already have eyes on a few other parts of our strange country to continue exploring the thread. The only rules are not to overthink it, and always choose the detour.

SPEAKING OF DRIVING,

A new editorial I photographed for Road & Track hits newsstands today. Sometime late in the summer, the wonderful team at R&T reached out about photographing a new vehicle from a start-up company called Czinger.

With Matt Farah as our fearless leader, we’d head to the hills of California and photograph this insane, partially 3D-printed, beast of a vehicle.

For these editorial jobs, we generally don’t have a budget to take the usual crew… So I found myself alone at Flo’s Coffee Shop in Azusa, California, plotting a route through the nearby hills of San Gabriel Canyon.

I took three trips through the hills to build this story… On the day I arrived, I drove the route myself, exploring potential angles, straightaways and switchbacks, shooting textures and landscapes and generally just laughing at how ridiculous my job is.

The next day, I’d meet the Czinger team to get some action shots of the car. Matt wouldn’t be able to join us until the following day, so we’d shoot a few details and big wide shots with a different driver, so as to maximize our time and steer clear of the video Matt would be shooting the next morning. Big thanks to Patrick for coming out from LA and cruising around with me, enabling me to shoot out the back of the truck, among other things.

Finally, we’d be up before sunrise to meet Matt and his team, and photograph him driving the car to round out the story. We spend a few days editing down the shoot, then hand it to one of my favorite creative teams in the business… Cassidy Zobl and the gang at Road & Track.

I love the way they lay these stories out and am continually grateful to put my pictures in such good hands. If you have a chance, pick up a print copy of this magazine… As with a few other titles, they have really reinvested in what a print magazine can be and it’s always a pleasure to flip through and remember the look, feel and smell of ink on a page.

INTERESTINGLY,

A few things worth checking out this week.

1. One Shot w Ed Sheeran The wildly talented DP (and friend) Nyk Allen just shot this Netflix special with Ed Sheeran, where they followed Ed for an hour long one-take performance all over New York City. A really impressive feat… Loved this BTS video.

2. Amy Woodward - Milk Teeth It’s difficult to photograph parenthood without being overly nostalgic or saccharin about it. Australian photographer Woodward’s new monograph explores the everyday rhythms of parenting in a gorgeous, compelling way. The article linked above has a brief writeup and gallery, and you can find the book, published by Tall Poppy Press, here.

3. More Perfect Union - Farm Crisis On a recent job in Alabama, we got to interview some farmers, who shared a bit about how difficult things have been in their industry lately. This week I stumbled on this nicely produced short film exploring the same idea… American farmers are struggling. Worth a watch. I’d love to get out and tell more of these crucial stories next year… Such a big part of American culture and history… Wild to see it being dismantled like this.

4. Forevergreen My friend Don Clark shared this short film, which he did the beautiful illustrated credits on. A side project from a group of big animators and artists from around the world. Cute ~12 minute watch with the kids this week.

5. John Green - The Interview John Green is such a fascinating artist… From his groundbreaking vlog to his library of young adult novels, to his more recent work like The Anthropocene Reviewed (one of my favorite books) and Everything is Tuberculosis (currently halfway through. He’s always chasing his curiosities earnestly and this latest book is no exception. Side note… Got to sneak onto the set of Paper Towns eleven (?!) years ago and make some portraits with he and Nat Wolff, for Hollywood Reporter.

   

UP NEXT,

Enjoying a surprisingly quiet week at home for Thanksgiving... No car rentals, no call sheets and no agenda. A bit of a detour from a busy season, which sounds great.

Thank you for reading this fourteenth week of All Kinds Of Commas. I’m grateful to share these ramblings and glimpses at my strange life with a camera and hope they spark a brief moment of curiosity in your week.

Please consider sharing this post with a friend, subscribing to the newsletter or leaving a comment to let me know you’re here.

Happy Thanksgiving!