The Cononino Center for the Arts in Flagstaff, Arizona, is hosting through late September the Route 66-related works of pinhole cameraman Wes Pope and late Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Edward Keating.
The “Route 66: Alternative Perspectives” exhibition displays “a decidedly non-nostalgic and creatively interpretive photo-documentary of life along the Mother Road,” the center stated.
The Main Gallery features Pope’s “Pop 66: A Dreamy Pop Can-camera Oddesy Along Route 66” collection and Keating’s “Main Street: The Lost Dream of Route 66.”
More from the center:
EDWARD KEATING (1956-2021) – Remembered as a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist for his work during the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks (2002) and a shared recipient for the Pulitzer Prize for the series, “How Race is Lived in America” (2000), Eddie Keating originally studied at Columbia University while working as a photographer for the Spectator in the 1980s. Throughout his body of work, we find humanity in small, often forgotten places and moments, documenting the human passion that drives hope and change, or a reason to look a little closer. Keating’s Main Street, The Lost Dream of Route 66 endures as a collection of over decades’ worth of driving, documenting and living on the Mother Road. Approaching the project as a journalist, Eddie captured the collapsing social and infrastructural conditions surrounding both residents and travelers of the road. An unceremonious look behind Americana postcards and into the faces and places that others pass by “Main Street” historically preserves what Keating sought to frame as composition: a road and culture slowly displaced. Our thanks to renowned photographer and Keating’s wife Carrie Boretz for partnering with Coconino Center for the Arts to bring this exceptional exhibition to Flagstaff, Arizona.
WES POPE is an artist, educator, and former photojournalist whose work spans photography, videography and multimedia storytelling. With over 25 years of experience, Pope has served as a staff photographer at the Chicago Tribune, CITY 2000, the Santa Fe New Mexican, and the Rocky Mountain News. He taught photojournalism and documentary studies at Northern Arizona University in 2011-2012 before joining the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, where he directs the Multimedia Storytelling master’s program in Portland.
Beyond journalism, Pope has been exploring pinhole photography since 1998, using the low-tech medium as both artistic expression and documentary tool. His ongoing series Pop 66: A Dreamy Pop Can Camera Oddesy Along Route 66 reimagines the American road trip through handmade pinhole cameras fashioned from soda cans. These images bend clarity and distortion together, transforming everyday scenes into lyrical meditations on time, memory and disappearance along the iconic highway.
Pope’s work is on display at Coconino Center for the Arts and is enhanced with immersive VR elements —photogrammetry and 360-degree video — supported by the University of Oregon. Visitors can scan QR codes with their phones to explore the aesthetic link between his analog photography and cutting-edge digital media.
The Route 66 News review of Keating’s book can be found here. The review of Pope’s book is here.
A second exhibition at the center is “Shades of Route 66,” which “explores, documents and shares stories of the underrepresented voices of people and their communities who contributed to the diverse cultural and socioeconomic landscape along Route 66 through Arizona.”
“Shades” includes a digitally accessible “StoryMap” using ArcGIS for an inclusive history of Route 66’s planning, construction, and development.
The Coconino Center for the Arts is at 2300 N. Fort Valley Road in Flagstaff. It is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.
(Images from the Edward Keating and Wes Pope displays courtesy of Peter Corbett)