For photographer Helene Havard, travel is a way of exploring how places shape us. Through her signature pastel color palette, she has turned very real and active locations into dreamy, Wes Anderson-like sites where time doesn’t seem to pass. Having captured the cheerful Santa Cruz Boardwalk and Santa Monica Pier, Havard has set her sights on a diametrically opposite subject. In her latest series, titled End of the Road, the photographer captures the businesses that dot the highways of the American West.
“End of the Road belongs to an ongoing exploration of places that already live within our collective imagination,” Havard says. Born in France and based in French Polynesia, the photographer’s earliest knowledge of these roadside sites came from art, film, and photography rather than a firsthand experience. “The series considers how these iconic landscapes shape perception long before we ever encounter them,” she explains, “treating the American desert as an idea as much as a place.”
This time, Havard turns her camera to the humble diners, motels, and service stations, which have witnessed travelers coming and going for decades. While the sun-bleached hues of the facades paint a picture of stylish decay, the classic cars only fuel the mystery surrounding these places. How long have they been here for? Could be a minute, could be years.
Overall, for all the vintage elements, the series isn’t rooted in nostalgia. Through it runs a feeling of uneasiness, as if the viewer has been left behind, just like these places have been. After all, these roadside sites are never the destination, but merely something that exists in between. Dependable and forgettable; humble yet vital.
“Muted colors, quiet compositions, and a suspended sense of time compose the visual language of these photographs, revealing the fragile space between reality and memory,” the photographer adds. “The desert becomes a mental landscape, one where solitude, waiting, and silence unfold on their own terms. End of the Road speaks to my interest in the atmosphere of places, and in the subtle dialogue between landscapes and those who pass through them extending beyond a simple representation of the American West.”
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In her latest series, photographer Helene Havard turns the highways of the American West into an exploration of memory and solitude.
