In a lot of ways, you can describe this book as “the road less traveled.”
Nashville-based photographer Jay Farrell’s “Route 66 Roadscapes: Stores Through the Lens” (224 pages, hardback, color images), generally avoids the nostalgia that permeates much of old U.S. 66, although a few familiar landmarks occasionally appear.
Instead, many of the images in this volume show rusty old cars and the ruins of buildings along the road. Farrell sought to show “a perspective that diverges from the typical tourist focus on mainstream attractions.”
Adding to the nonconventional aspect was that Farrell used a simple Leica camera instead of lugging around many lenses and equipment. Leicas contain only one focal length, which Farrell says challenges him professionally and gets him “up close and personal” with his subjects.
Farrell traveled old Route 66 in chunks from 2022 to 2024, including a trip specially for the 13.2 miles of the Mother Road in Kansas because of bad weather a previous time. He noted most of the images came from rural places and small towns, not the large cities.
Farrell’s book can be ordered through his author website, including autographed copies.
After a brief history of Route 66, the book goes into an east-to-west format with its images, with Farrell’s descriptions or musings in a couple of sentences below each one.
In the Illinois section, Farrell’s dark image of a lonely road and power poles during a rainstorm evokes the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Also striking are images of the declining Honnegar’s Grain Elevator near Pontiac.
Route 66 enthusiasts probably will feel a pang upon seeing images of a quiet Henry’s Rabbit Ranch in Staunton. Owner Rich Henry was not around at the time, and he died two months after Farrell’s last visit there.
Farrell likes taking pictures of rusty, often-defunct old cars. One striking image is a decaying (and rare) Studebaker pickup truck. And he took a bunch of pictures of old vehicles in an undisclosed auto boneyard in the Texas Panhandle.
Farrell captured striking images of ruins along the Mother Road, including an abandoned but eerily untouched room at the Dixie Motel and Cafe in McLean, Texas; the remains of Fort Wingate near Gallup, New Mexico; and what’s left of George Air Force Base near Victorville, California.
He took a few images of neon signs, including of Roy’s Cafe & Motel in Amboy, California. With one image of its sign, Farrell moved the camera in a circular motion, creating an interesting effect.
Some of Farrell’s most fascinating images were created with long-exposure shots and colored light panels. Places such as the long-abandoned Avon Motor Court in Afton, Oklahoma; Rainbow Bridge in Baxter Springs, Kansas; an abandoned traincar in Galena, Kansas; and the ruins at Two Guns, Arizona, are seen in literally new light.
One gets the impression that Farrell produced these images with thought, care and even determination.
Recalling the time he took a picture of a rusted GMC near Texola, Oklahoma, “as I knelt in the field to compose the shot, sand spurs lodged into the palm of my hand and my knee. I spent days picking thorns out. So be it.”
(Disclosure: Farrell is an advertiser on Route 66 News.)
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