Emmanuel Georges

Traveling across the United States, the French photographer Emmanuel Georges went in search of the American dream. Using a large-format camera and a documentary-style approach, he captured the reality of America encountered during his journey. At the same time, his photographs reveal a finely tuned understanding of the poetry unique to these places. The result is a kind of photographic road trip of more than twenty thousand kilometers: from the former capital of the automobile industry, Detroit, to Butte, Montana, once a mining city and now half-deserted; through the Rust Belt from Pennsylvania to Arkansas, formerly flourishing cities tell the story of the disappearance of an economic boom long gone.

Georges’s recurring motifs—decaying façades of industrial buildings, garages, motels, movie theaters—become iconic images of American urban landscapes. Profoundly permeated by an omnipresent sense of melancholy, the empty streets, old cars, and abandoned gas stations are testimony to the end of the American dream.