A photographic celebration of small-town America chronicles an eighteen-month odyssey through rural America

A MESSAGE FROM DANIEL PAISNER:

“This was a fun project, although not nearly as fun as it might have been. . . for me. Husband and wife photographers Arthur Klonsky and Jane Sobel got it in their heads to pack up their Manhattan-based studio and light out for the American heartland in search of the perfect place to live. They got themselves a camper and a couple thousand roles of film and set off with their two Great Danes on a grand adventure, snapping photos along the way. The resulting book captures their two-year, cross-country trek, which they dubbed ‘An American Odyssey.’ I was invited along to join them for a couple legs of their journey, and to help attach (hopefully) beautiful words to their (certainly) beautiful images. One personal highlight: the chance to interview John Barlow, longtime lyricist for the Grateful Dead, who hosted Arthur and Jane on his ranch in Pinedale, Wyoming. ‘I think there’s something very exciting about living in this time and place,’ Barlow told me, back in 1989. ‘I don’t know where we’re going, but we’re going somewhere. We’re going so fast we’re gonna hit some kind of wall, and then either we’ll annihilate ourselves or something marvelous is gonna be on the other side.’”